


California Dreaming

by helladirections



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Angst, Bedroom Sex, Blow Jobs, California, Celebrity Crush, College, Coming of Age, Complete, Condoms, Consent, Eventual Smut, F/M, Falling In Love, Famous Liam, First Kiss, First Love, First Time, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Hand Jobs, Het, High School, Loss of Virginity, Making Out, Masturbation, One Direction Tours, Oral Sex, POV First Person, POV Multiple, Phone Sex, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Protective Liam, Romance, Sex, Sexual Experimentation, Sharing a Bed, Smut, Surfing, Teen Romance, Twitter, Vaginal Fingering, Virginity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-25
Updated: 2013-11-25
Packaged: 2018-01-02 14:51:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 64,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1058085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helladirections/pseuds/helladirections
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elysa is a fairly average 16 year old high school sophomore when she sends a letter to One Direction. She doesn’t expect them to respond or even to read it actually. But the letter catches Liam’s eye and through an awesome chain of events they end up talking. The rest just kind of takes off from there.</p><p>Or: the one I wrote for myself Sophomore year</p><p>Click here to let me know what you want me to write next: http://poll.fm/4d1zb</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I personally think that the first few chapters kind of suck in terms of how I wrote them and annoyingness, but I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to write them any differently and they are really important to the story. Please don’t let them stop you from reading the rest though!
> 
> Also, this is not a final draft!

**Elysa’s POV**

                I was just a normal fan back before it all started. Actually, no; I was never a normal fan. I was the fan who hated that I was a fan, I was the fan that told myself to stop whenever I searched through related tags on Tumbr, I was the fan that had fan fictions bookmarked but denied it even to myself, but most of all, I was the fan who had come to the conclusion that I would never meet the boys and had thus moved on from that fantasy.

                Then, one day I decided to write a letter to the boys. I managed to use my massive amount of dorkiness combined with an insane amount of boredom at the time and I eventually built up a letter totaling about eight pages long. I wrote one letter to all of them together, explaining how I found them and such, and then I continued to write an individual letter to each of the boys followed by two pages of pure questions. I looked up the cost of mailing something from California to England online and while in the car with my brother one day I discretely asked him to let me stop by the post office so I could buy stamps.

                I mailed the letter one day when I had the car to myself and no one in my family had to find out about it. I didn’t think they would read it, but it felt good to be able to try and say something to them. I never understood why girls screamed in their faces. I had real things I wanted to tell them and talk to them about, and I felt good about writing it all down for them.

**Liam’s POV**

                Just before we left for America I was sorting through our fan mail. The rest of the lads were running in and out of their flats trying to fit all of their bags into one car. Harry laughed at me as I sat there, trying to sort countless letters, but I explained to him that it wouldn’t be fair to the fans that put this much effort into talking us to just ignore them until we got back.

                “Lads, hurry up, the car is about to leave!” Paul shouted outside of all of our flats, although it was clear that he was directing this to me.

                I sighed and straightened out the piles of letters, sad that I couldn’t get to all of them before we left. But before I could fully walk away, one letter caught my eye. It was thicker than most of the letter that we received and the hand writing on the front looked beautiful but cute at the same time. I noticed how it was addressed to all five of us with all of our names separately spelled out correctly and I smiled when I saw the five very cliché looking American stamps. I heard Paul shouting something again from outside, so I grabbed the letter quickly. While hurrying out, I noticed that it had come all the way from California, and I stuck it in my back pocket. 


	2. Chapter 1

  **Liam’s POV**

                The lads and I had decided that we wanted to spend our few hours off this afternoon in California just staying in the hotel and relaxing, so I picked up my favorite comfortable pair of pants. I hadn’t worn them since the flight to America almost a month ago, so I smelled them to make sure they were still relatively fresh before slipping them on. However, when I went to sit on my bed, I felt something in back pocket.

                I suddenly remembered the letter that I had stuck in the pocket last minute before leaving my flat and I pulled it out. I smiled as I saw the handwriting on the front again. For some reason it just tickled me to see that someone would put so much effort into something so trivial. But I suppose it paid off, as I had noticed like I’m assuming this fan wanted me to.

                I carefully opened the envelope, not wanting to create scraps or rip up the beautiful yet cute handwriting. There was a bundle of paper carefully folded together with the same adorable handwriting on the outermost page reading “read outside page first”. I followed the instructions and read the letter that the fan had written to the entire band.

                Just reading that one page made my heart melt for endless reasons. She told me her secrets, her insecurities, her worries, and more. She told me how our first single had given her a bit more confidence one day when she especially needed it, and she told me how she loved to blast our music while driving in her car. The pictures she included in the letter, meant to be silly additions, were actually stunning as they caught my eyes immediately. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I kept reading the letters included to the other boys as well as the one to me, simply because I wanted to know everything about this girl.

                I had a smile on my face as I finished reading the entire letter before realizing the last thing that I had read. Before signing her name beautifully “Elysa”, she informed me that she was not able to afford to go to our show in San Jose, California. And as I folded up the letter carefully a connection was made in head.

                I didn’t have much time to think about it though, as I had a visitor knocking at my door. I grunted a bit, letting them know that I was on my way, but I kept my eyes on the letter, disappointed over my newest realization. However, the visitor kept knocking impatiently, and I was forced to move my attention to the door.

                I looked through the small hole and saw that Niall was standing on the other side. I smiled and opened the door for him, walking back towards my bed with the letter carefully folded upon it. Niall caught my gaze at the pieces of paper and was quickly curious.

                “It’s a letter from a fan,” I explained to him after realizing what the look on his face meant. “I stuffed it into my pocket before we left London and I just found it again. She wrote a letter to all of us and then a separate letter to each of us.” We moved closer to the papers and I sorted out the two pages for Niall, handing them to him. He immediately sat down and began to read.

                While he was in the chair, I walked back to my bed and admired the pictures of a lego building she had built that was placed on my portion of the letter. The fact that she was sixteen and still played with legos made me smile, and I knew Niall had finished reading his letter when he commented on just that smile.

                “You want to meet this girl, don’t you?” he asked cheekily. I felt my cheeks fill with blood and become red as I blushed and he laughed. “I’ll go get the other lads so they can read their parts of the letter.” And with that, he was out of my room again.

                I contemplated the remark that he had made, thinking that maybe I did really want to meet Elysa. But the connection I had made just before Niall walked in reminded me that it was not going to happen. Although she probably lived a mere thirty minutes from where I was currently sitting and thinking about her, she couldn’t afford to spend the money to get tickets to our show. She explained to me that she was saving her money for something later on.

                All of the lads soon walked in and I handed them their individual letters as if I was a school teacher handing back a test. The thought made me giggle as the lads all sat down around my room reading their letters. When they finished reading, they all had this look on their face as if they had just read the most amazing thing of their life. I shared that sentiment and smiled back.

                “We should go to this place she told us about after our concert. In-N-Out. We’ve been there before, right?” Zayn asked casually as if he was reading my mind.

                I smiled a bit, but it was Niall who was more excited as he remembered the last time we had gone there and the amazing burger he had tasted. “We have to go there. I don’t even care if this girl is there, I want to go there.”

Hours later, one of the best shows of the American leg of the tour so far had finished. We were all on concert highs and mine only got higher as I remembered that we would be going to In-N-Out like Elysa suggested in her letter. So the lads and I rushed out of the concert venue quickly, excited for our meal and possible meat up with this amazing fan.

But when we got there, it was nearly empty. It was in the early hours of the morning and only a few employees were still on duty. They didn’t seem to recognize us, so the experience was fairly normal. Once we got our food, an idea popped into my mind. Elysa had left her twitter name in the letter and said that she followed all of us. Maybe if I tweeted a funny picture of Niall eating a burger, she would notice and I could find her on twitter.

The night concluded without a retweet, favorite, or mention from her account. I got comfortable in my hotel room bed and drifted to sleep slowly, her face that I had seen merely in pictures locked in my mind.

 

**Elysa’s POV**

                It had been about a month since I had written and mailed a letter to One Direction. I didn’t expect anything in return, as I suspected they got hundreds of letters a day, and there was nothing remotely special about mine. It was long and would probably bore them after just a few seconds. Now they were performing just thirty minutes away from me in San Jose, and I was stuck in my room doing math homework, trying to keep my mind off of how close I really was to them.

                I stayed up late, watching reruns of my favorite cartoons and scrolling through Tumblr more than I wanted to. I changed my tabs and went to Twitter to see five new tweets, all from the One Direction boys. I read them over, wishing even more that I had been able to be at the concert. I sighed before going to sleep.

                I woke up in the morning and got ready for school as always. I grabbed my backpack, a lunch, a breakfast, and my homework before rushing out the door without a word to my family. My car was cold when I first sat down, but I blasted the heater knowing that it would soon become more comfortable. The drive was uneventful and it only took twenty minutes to find a parking spot before I grabbed my backpack and sat down in my first class.

                I smiled at my teacher and the students around me that usually forgot I existed, and I knew they would probably forget that this moment happened in a mere few seconds. I sat down in my usual seat and pulled out my binders and my phone from my pocket, waiting for class to start. As long as class hadn’t technically started, I could be on my phone. That’s when I saw the tweet from Liam Payne last night. They had gone to In-N-Out like I suggested in my letter.

                I froze as the bell rang to start the class and my teacher tried to quiet us all down. I felt somewhat stunned. As if I was watching my own life from afar. _Liam Payne had read my letter and tweeted about it._

                The day went on slowly until it was finally lunch. I sat in my English teacher’s closet as usual and stared at my food sitting next to my phone. My best friend Zach was sitting next to me and yelled at me because he was constantly worried that I was going to get sick, so I obeyed him and ate my food slowly. The entire time he was talking I was thinking about the perfect tweet I had to compose to send to Liam.

                I sent it when Zach wasn’t looking at me, and instantly felt a bit better. I let him keep talking to me about the rude things that people had said to him that day and the ways that he had stood up for himself. He always wanted me to do the same when people were rude to me, but I preferred the quiet approach. Maybe they would eventually forget about me and stop on their own.

                As if on cue, the bell rang, meaning I didn’t have to respond to Zach’s latest suggestion. But as we left the closet, none other than Sage and Taylor. Both had them had been tormenting me for years on their own, but their recent relationship had made my days even more unbearable. They didn’t even have to say something to get under my skin, just the way that they looked at Zach and me as we left the closet was enough to make my blood boil. But I did a great job of hiding it.

                “You can’t just keep letting them look at you like that Elysa,” Zach told me as we continued walking to class. I sighed and pushed off his comment as we went our separate ways to our separate classes. This was nothing new, and I was still confident that if I stayed quiet they would eventually forget that I even existed.

                After three more classes, the school day was finally over. I walked out to my car in the lot and sighed as I sat down in it. Although in the morning it had been ridiculously cold inside, it was now burning hot and stuffy, which meant that I would have to drive with the windows open for a bit. That meant no playing my favorite music, and it meant I was more likely to be noticeable to other people.

                I was naturally on edge as I tried to wiggle myself out of the lot. I got cut off at every turn and I could swear I got hit at least twice. But I stayed quiet and pretended none of that had happened. I just wanted to get home as quickly as possible and check my computer to see if One Direction had tweeted me back yet. Not that I was actually thinking they would, because they got millions of tweets per day.

                I opened my door and walked past my brother on his own computer. I smiled and he nodded at me, letting me know he was too busy to talk, so I continued walking. I knew that my parents wouldn’t be home, but somehow the house still felt more empty than usual. I tried to ignore the feeling and went into my room, opening my lap top on my bed.

                I refreshed all of my tabs before seeing that I had gained a follower on Twitter. My breath hitched in my throat. When I clicked on it, it was exactly what I was hoping it would be. Liam Payne had followed me. I closed my computer out of shock and an emotion that could only be explained as fear. But when I opened the screen up again, it was still there. Liam Payne had followed me on Twitter.

                Feeling it would only be a courtesy; I opened up a direct message and typed it out to him. I just wanted to thank him for following me and maybe get to talk to him for real once. I typed it slowly, spell checking every few seconds as I went along.

                _Hi Liam. Thank you for following me. I’m really weird and there is really no reason to follow me because I honestly don’t think I’m that interesting, but I really do appreciate it. I hope you had a great time in San Jose last night. I wrote you a letter a while ago telling you about me and California and In-N-Out. I hope you enjoyed that last night too. Did you happen to see my letter? –Elysa_

                “Elysa!” I heard my brother Sam shout from the living room just as I had clicked to send my message. “Will you make me some food? I’m hungry.” I sighed, unable to say no to my brother that I loved so much. He was taking such great care of me, but could not cook for life of him. So I got up off my bed and went into the kitchen, trying not to think about Liam anymore. 


	3. Chapter 2

**Liam’s POV**

                 I sat up in bed after waking up in my hotel room bed. I could already hear our girls down a few floors below screaming our names, but for the first time since I had been in America, I really didn’t care. I looked over at the clock and saw that it was already early afternoon, meaning the jet lag must have really gotten to me. Slowly, I wiped the sleep from eyes and opened my computer to check twitter.

                I figured that Elysa would have already been in bed by the time I tweeted about us going to In-N-Out, and must be at school all day too. I wanted so badly to find her, but I doubted that she would publically tweet me if she really was as embarrassed as she said she was in the letter. Still, I searched for her Twitter name that she left in the letter and found her account. The picture that appeared astounded me, she was stunning.

                I stopped myself from admiration as I realized that our fan base was massive, and I considered giving up on trying to contact her. It’s probably all in my head anyways. But either way, I just wanted to have one, honest, real, conversation with this girl. There’s something in my heart and my head telling me to do it, so I have to do it.

                The hours of the day passed slowly as I stayed mostly locked up in my room on the computer. The lads came in and out and tried to convince me to go do things with them during the day, but I continued to refuse. It felt like I was one of the fans who sit on Tumblr all day, but it was sort of reversed, which was strange to me.

                Finally, Niall came in without even knocking and yelled, “Gimme that!”, making me jump. I sighed but eventually handed my computer over to him and stood up to splash some water on my face in the bathroom. It was close to four o’clock and I still had heard nothing from Elysa, and I was giving up hope.

                From the bathroom I could hear Niall laughing at various things on my computer and I pictured the crumbs he was dropping from the Taco he had probably stolen from Harry. I looked at my face, damp with the chilly water I had just splashed on it. I knew millions of girls around the world loved this face, but I didn’t see anything particularly special about it. It almost made me feel like a liar to them.

                “Liam!” Niall screamed from my bed. I dried off my face and walked towards the boy sitting with my computer. He was staring at the fans that I had started to follow over the past few days and pointed directly to Elysa. “That’s her, that’s the girl from the letter.”

                “I know,” I said, staring at her beautiful hair and face all over again like I had stopped myself from doing earlier in the day. There was a silence as the two of us were unsure what to say next, and then a notification popped up in the corner, alerting me that I had a new direct message. Niall opened it and it was from Elysa.

                We both read it at the same time in our heads, me probably more excited than Niall, but he was happy to see it none the less. By the time we both finished, Niall could see my thoughts in my eyes. We looked at each other for a moment and then he left the room abruptly without saying a word or even cleaning off my bed from the crumbs he had made.

                I was confused, as Niall usually tried to pry all the information he could out of me, but a few minutes later he arrived back at my doorway with the rest of the lads. He took the computer off of my lap once again and handed it to Harry, pointing out the message. All three of the lads stood there and read the message before looking up at me.

                “So when are you gonna meet her, mate?” Harry asked me bluntly. I smiled a bit, maybe even blushed, but I couldn’t tell.

                I took the computer back from Harry and sat down, the lads still surrounding me and looking over my shoulder. They all wanted to meet her almost as much as I did, almost. They helped me compose a direct message back to her.

                _We really did have a great night last night. And of course we got your letter! Didn’t you see us at your special In-N-Out last night after the show? I hope your day at school wasn’t too bad love. Anyway, I’d love to go to In-N-Out again, but with you so you could show me exactly what I should be getting. The lads and I are going to trick Paul into taking us back there in about an hour. If you can make it, that would be lovely. –Liam_

**Elysa’s POV**

                I drove to my favorite In-N-Out like Liam had asked me to and held my breath. I was so nervous that I had hadn’t even played any music on my way over. I pulled up and turned off the engine, sitting there for a few moments before moving, trying to convince myself that what was happening was really real.

                But the moment that I closed my car door, I knew it had to be real. I saw all the annoying girls in the area screaming, packing the small building. I walked up and opened the door slowly, trying not to hit any of the sardine-packed people inside. Using my California skill, I maneuvered my way to the counter. Not a single one of the screaming girls was actually in line, so I went right up to the employee who was probably regretting his decision to work there today.

                I carefully and quickly wrote down my order on my phone, knowing that there was no way in hell that he would hear me if I tried to say it to him. I paid and took my receipt, sitting down at the most isolated table I could possibly find in the very back. Silly me thought that the screaming would subside after a few minutes, but I was wrong. These girls must have had amazing lungs because my order was ready and they were still going strong.

                I only sighed and sent out a tweet about my misfortunate moment when my phone vibrated again. I looked and saw that my new text was from Twitter.

                _@real_Liam_Payne: I’ll get that for you_

I couldn’t tell if he was talking to me or not. He could have meant anything by that tweet. Either he respected my privacy enough to not to tag me in the tweet, or he wasn’t even talking to me at all. But either way, I just sat there, motionless.

                Then I noticed the giant mob of girls slowly start to shift a bit, mostly to make a path just barely wide enough for about half the size of an average person to push through. I could tell by the top of the boy’s head that it was Liam.  A small number of girls followed him, while the rest kept screaming to Harry, Louis, Niall, and Zayn.

                The golden brown hair on top of Liam’s head finally made it through the crowd and to the counter where my food was. He tried to grab my meal, but the annoyed employee gave him a negative look. He continued to point at me, apparently trying to explain that he knew it was my meal and that he was going to bring it to me, and all of the girls around him turned their heads. They looked right past me and into the parking lot, expecting to see Josh or someone else famous. In that split second, Liam managed to get through the mob just far enough to make eye contact with me. In a matter of seconds my food was placed down before me, along with a small slip of paper. I smiled up at the body that had brought it to me, but he was already gone.

                Swiftly, I grabbed my meal and the small piece of paper and walked out of the building to sit in my car. Once in safety, I took a deep breath. It was quieter again, and I almost felt freer. I helped myself to some fries without really even noticing as I carefully opened the small slip of paper. It had a phone number on it. I was stunned, but not wanting to lose my chance I pulled out my phone and sent a text.

                _Hey, it’s Elysa, who is this?_

 

 


	4. Chapter 3

**Elysa’s POV**

                It was exactly two weeks since the mob at In-N-Out, and since then Liam and I had spent almost every minute of the day while we were both awake texting each other. He was such a real person that I almost forgot he was famous sometimes. He let me complain to him about school, my complicated family situation, and even obsess with him over my favorite TV shows that I had convinced him to watch online. He did the same to me. He told me what life on tour was like, all the dumb stuff he and the other boys would do when Paul wasn’t looking, and crazy things baby Lux tried simply because she didn’t know any differently.  If only they could have stayed in California for just a bit longer.

                I was lying in bed, trying to clear my head from an immense amount of drama led on by Sage and Taylor. Zach wasn’t there to help me fend them off, and my method of staying quiet didn’t seem to be working. I looked at the clock beside me and saw that it was 3 o’clock AM. A loud sigh released from my mouth as I gave into my technological desires and opened my computer.

                The first thing I saw on Twitter was a tweet from Harry complaining about the early morning. They were somewhere on the east coast, meaning it was 6 o’clock AM for them. I couldn’t help but smile to myself in the early hours of morning.

                Careful not to make a sound, I opened my door slowly and crept into the kitchen where I poured myself a glass of milk and stole a big fat chocolate chip cookie. Then, just as carefully, I crept back into my room and sat down on my bed with a feeling of accomplishment. I picked up my phone, replacing it with the milk and cookie, and I sent a new text to Liam.

                _Hey Liam, I can’t sleep, so I got milk and a cookie. Except that I had to get it myself, I didn’t have a cookie man like you._

I pressed send with a giant smile spread across my face. I liked to throw in little jokes that the fandom used to remind him that I was a real person. I took a bite of my cookie and not a second later I got a reply.

                _Next time call me, I’ll be your cookie man(; Why can’t you sleep? Are you doing ok?_

                He cared so much about me, even when he was too tired for anything else. He was three thousand miles away from me at least and still wanted to do everything in his power to make things better for me.

                _Just drama today with Sage and Taylor. You’d think my lack of male companionship would prevent stuff like this from happening, but I guess not…._

                The pattern continued; a bit of cookie, a swig of milk, a text to Liam, repeat. Before I knew it, it was 6 o’clock AM here, 9 o’clock AM where he was, and time for me to probably eat some breakfast. Luckily it was Saturday, and I ended up drifting off to sleep without another thought.

**Liam’s POV**

                Elysa was a girl that I could talk to for hours on end and never get bored with. She was a girl who could listen to my deepest secrets, desires, and worries, care about me, and then make a joke to lighten the mood. Elysa was exactly what I had always been looking for. Until I had started talking to her, I had always pictured America, as vast as it is, being a small enough country to feel close to someone on the other side. But now that had changed. Although I was in America, I was in New York, and she was in California. It was like two completely different worlds.

                She was so cute too. Not just in the way that she looked, but in the way that she _was._ She constantly reminded me that she was just a regular fan and not someone else famous by being completely down to earth and full on dorky sometimes. She even made a joke about the cookie man from my twit cam a while back.

                The thought that she was peacefully sleeping in her bed, alone, without me, was as beautiful as it was horrifying. I wanted nothing more than for her to be happy, but there was no way of knowing how much I was actually a part of that happiness.

                The five of us were now sat in a car, driving through this giant city. Niall asked if there was In-N-Out here, clearly because he had not gotten over Elysa’s amazing recommendation. Harry explained that there wasn’t calmly to Niall as Zayn, Louis and I laughed at the never ending pit that Niall called a stomach.

                Even with the lads sitting right by me, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of my phone, waiting for Elysa to text me back. She would probably still be sleeping, but every moment I wasn’t in contact with her was a moment I was wasting, and the lads were beginning to understand that I felt that way.

                My thoughts were taken off of Elysa, who was probably resting peacefully in bed now, when I heard a groan coming from Paul in the front seat of the car. I hadn’t noticed his phone ring, but he was complaining into it loudly now. The lads and I all turned our heads to look at where the noise was coming from.

                “Really? NOW? There’s no way that they can do it. Do you understand how big this country is?!?” He screamed once again. A moment later he sighed, hanging up the phone dramatically as if he had just lost his battle.  “Bad news lads. Management has set up an extra surprise show appearance near San Francisco, California. We fly out tomorrow.”

                Although Paul was fuming at this, I couldn’t help but smile. I would be going back to California, right near where Elysa lived, TOMORROW. I had to tell her as soon as I could. I knew she was probably sleeping still, but I couldn’t hold back the temptation to send her a text.

                _I have something to tell you babe (: x_

                Somehow I knew the suspense would make the news even more exciting. I pressed send and my smile only grew, causing Louis to taunt me a bit. I didn’t care though, Louis could do whatever he wanted and it wouldn’t change how ecstatic I was to see Elysa again.

                Harry was the only one that seemed really upset about the news, as he complained about the lack of sleep it would cause. But Niall interrupted as soon as he noticed that he would be back near In-N-Out, and we all chuckled at his attitude. He nearly screamed, shaking Harry out of his bubble of negativity and making all of us lads laugh.

                Just then, my phone vibrated. It was Elysa and she said she had just woken up from her nap. The vision of her sleeping peacefully in her bed filled my mind once again as I replied.

                _Management just added a surprise show in California. I fly out tomorrow. I could get you VIP tix if you wanted?_

                I pressed send, smiling for a moment. However, my smile quickly dissipated as my nerves began to rise. What if she said no? What if she didn’t want to see me?

                I felt as if Elysa was taking forever to respond. Thoughts swirled I my mind as I awaited her response. I couldn’t remember the last time I was this nervous for a text from a girl, the last time I felt like this about a girl at all. I think that’s when it finally hit me that I had fallen so quickly for Elysa. I wanted nothing more than to hold her close to me at night, to feel her smile as we kissed, to…

                No. I had to stop. There was no way she felt like this about me. The way I was thinking was wrong, it was creepy, it just couldn’t be right. I would never have thoughts like that about any of my other female friends. I had to stop this.

                Finally, my phone vibrated with a new text from Elysa. She said yes and was super excited to finally meet me in person. And that’s where my breath stopped. I reread her words. I finally realized it. I had only briefly seen her appear in person, had spent hours mesmerized by her pictures, and the better part of my days texting her about everything the world could imagine, but we still had never truly met in person.

                My mind became a whirlwind once again. What if she didn’t like me as much in person? What if I said something stupid? What if she was too shy to talk to me? What the lads didn’t like her? Would meeting her in person actually ruin the amazing friendship that we had created?

                After all, she was just a regular high school kid. She was 16. She was a sophomore. She was in school and had a family and a brother and friends. She might not even be allowed to go to the concert at all anyway. What if her parents just flat out said no?

               

 

                


	5. Chapter 4

**Elysa’s POV**

                I counted down the minutes and hours in the day, more impatient than ever, as school was coming to an end. I desperately wanted to be at the show. I had always dreamed of seeing One Direction live, I had always wanted to meet them. Each of the boys seemed so amazing in their own way, but this was something else. I wouldn’t just be meeting One Direction, I would be meeting the boy I had just fallen head over heels for, and his four best friends who would hopefully become my own friends as well. I couldn’t even get the concept completely through my thick skull, making it even more difficult for new algebraic concepts to get in there too.   

                The day had finally come though. I woke up early in the morning and got dressed for school. I felt as if I got to school earlier then the day would actually end earlier. Although it didn’t, I still tried to rush my way through the day. When the bell finally went off at 3:15 I rushed out of my 6th period class and towards the parking lot.

                Halfway to my car I overheard Sage talking with a group of her friends. “I heard they have a surprise concert tonight, but I have no idea where.” She whispered to them.

                I smiled as I kept walking. I was living these girls’ dream. These girls who had tormented me almost all my life were gossiping about a rumor they heard that I knew all about. Of course, they would never know that I was living their dream. My own family didn’t even know.

                My family had no idea what I was doing, actually. Both my parents were in a series of court appearances for their divorce followed by other meetings and at the end of the day, they were just gone. I had told Sam that I was going camping simply because I afraid he would make fun of me if he knew, or even tell me not to go. He didn’t trust me around guys that he didn’t know, and he didn’t like One Direction because he was a 19 year old boy who thought he was better than that.

                I stopped at my house only quickly to change my clothes into something warmer since I assumed it would be cold in the concert venue at night and I was wearing only shorts and a T shirt with my favorite flip flops. I got back into my car and looked at the clock. It was far too early to head over the concert. I resorted to stopping at In-N-Out since I wasn’t sure when I would be getting to eat next. I also thought it would be a fun way to tease Niall and break the ice when I finally met him.

                I ate quietly by myself in the corner while I day dreamed about the night that was coming closer and closer to reality. I wanted to meet them all so badly. I had dreamed and planned what I wanted to say to the boys if I ever got to go to a signing, but I hadn’t thought through what I would say for a prolonged period of time, and I soon became nervous. I had to snap myself out of my thoughts and remember that I was, if nothing else, friends with Liam. That I knew him so well already and we talked about so much. These news thoughts helped me relax.

                The next few hours were a big blur. Liam had included a VIP parking pass for me, so after the frustrating amount of traffic trying to park, I actually got valet service. I was in complete shock. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was supposed to be going until I saw Paul outside of a door, trying to shield it from the girls threatening to break into it.

                I walked over to him timidly, trying to avoid being smashed by the crazy fan girls. I held my arms close to my chest as I walked, and tucked my phone and keys deep into my pockets so that they wouldn’t be ripped away from me. When I reached Paul, I attempted to ask where to go, but he couldn’t hear me. I resorted to pulling out my VIP pass and showing it to him instead. He smiled at me and pointed to a black car that looked like the one the boys usually traveled in. I was confused, but I followed his silent instructions.

                I managed to maneuver my way back through the intense crowd. These girls had posters, they had costumes, and they were screaming. I, on the other hand, was wearing only my favorite jeans and a T shirt. I didn’t fit in, but I never fit in, so it wasn’t much of a new feeling.

                As I finally reached the car, I notice the volume of the girls seem to go down behind me. It was just quiet enough for me to speak now. I held up my pass again as a man waiting outside of the car smiled.

                “You must be Elysa?” he said sweetly, opening the door for me.

                I blushed a bit, wondering what Liam had told management about me. I wondered what they thought about me and if they would be mad at me. But there was no time to contemplate it all at the moment. The man opened the car door for me and I got into the back seat.

                The man asked me a few questions on the car ride, mostly about school and the area we were in. I gave him short answers because I was nervous about meeting Liam in person for the first time and nervous that he would find something wrong with me and management wouldn’t let me be around the boys. So the majority of the ride was in silence.

**Liam’s POV**

                I sat backstage with the lads like always before a show. It was one of those moments where I could just sit back, and smile, completely content with my life at the moment. it was as if nothing could better. In just about an hour I would be going on stage with my four best friends to do what I love most, and get paid for it. And somewhere in that whole mix I would be spending time with the girl that I had just fallen for. There was honestly nothing that could bring me down from this high.

                Paul came into the room, reading off of his clipboard. Niall was turned down when he asked for more food because Paul insisted eating just before going on stage was a bad idea. Then he told us that the VIP guest was about to arrive. He glared at Harry, who was wearing minimal clothing at that point, and I couldn’t help but chuckle as he went back into the dressing room to put some pants and a shirt on.

                My smile soon grew when I realized once again that the VIP guest that Paul had been referring to was Elysa. I didn’t have much time for my mind to wander, though, as Lux wandered into the room instead. I picked her right up, hoping her baby antics would help me keep my nerves down while I waited for Elysa.

                The child in my arms cooed at me as I played with her small limbs. She had my entire attention and I didn’t even notice a new body walk timidly into the room. I heard the lads greet Peter, one of our drivers, but I didn’t think anything of it. Then Lux turned her attention to the new presence.

                My gaze followed the child’s as I saw a beautiful girl standing in the doorway. She looked shy and scared, timid even. I recognized her face from the pictures as Elysa, but her small demeanor baffled me as she always seemed such a strong person while we texted.

                “Hi,” she said quietly to Paul, who was standing on the other side of the room from me. She then smiled as she looked around the room at the five of us before her gaze finally landed on Lux and I. Her smile grew as we made eye contact and she slowly made her way over to me.

                Niall took Lux out of my lap, knowing that I would want to get up and hug Elysa. My legs shot up quicker than even I expected. I took her into a tight embrace and smiled. After a small hesitation on her part, our bodies seemed to fit together perfectly. Her head rested on the middle of my chest as her arms wrapped around my waist, and my head rested perfectly atop hers with my arms wrapped around her perfect body. We took a few breaths in unison before releasing from our perfect hug.

                “Hello, love,” I whispered carefully to Elysa before we completely left each other’s contact.

                “Hi Liam,” she whispered, equally as quietly. I loved the way her accent made my name sound. I could listen to her say it for hours like that.

                I heard Harry cough from the corner and I felt my cheeks heat up. I can only imagine how bright red they must have been when I looked at Elysa’s and saw hers looking exactly the same. She looked down at the ground before looking back up to greet the other lads.

                “You must be Elysa, it’s great to meet you,” Louis said, as he walked up to her and gave her a quick hug. She looked comfortable hugging him, which made me doubt the specialness I had felt about our own embrace. The same was repeated with all of the others lads before Paul read off of his clip board once again.

                “Ok lads, we’ve got some interviews set up,” he said. Elysa looked over to me and then back to Paul. “They don’t need all of you though, so you can decide who wants to stay and talk to … Elysa,” he finished after reading her name off of clip board. He walked out of the room swiftly and the lads instantly followed, leaving just Elysa and I in the room together.

                We stood there silent together for a moment before I led her to a comfortable couch. The first few seconds were a bit awkward, but then she relaxed and settled into her surroundings. She smiled at me as I put my arm around her and she cuddled into my side.

                “So, how was your math test today?” I saw her mind to a flip to remember her test, which must have been much earlier in the day. She soon scooted even closer to me and started rambling about her math teacher and her day. It felt so comfortable – sitting there with her. I felt protective over her and wanted to yell at her teacher for causing her so much emotional pain.

                Our conversation flowed smoothly, and time seemed to pass quickly. It didn’t seem long until Paul walked back into the room and told me I had to get on stage. He walked out and I looked down at Elysa. She was gazing at me in a somewhat peculiar way, but I ignored it and let my gaze fall upon her. Her eyes were a beautiful blue and her dirty blonde hair shaped her face perfectly. Before I could even think, I felt the words coming out of my mouth.

                “You’re lovely, you know that Elysa?” The moment I felt the words release from my lips she began to blush and looked away. Although her blush was also lovely, I stopped her. With a finger on her chin, I moved her head back to face mine. “Hey, don’t do that, I mean it.” She only continued to blush.

                Without thinking, I leaned down and placed a small, sweet peck on her cheek. At first it felt comfortable and completely right, but after a moment, I noticed her blush again and I became embarrassed. I stood up quickly and told her I would see her after the show and walked away as quickly as I could.

                My mind was in a different place now. All I could think about was how I could have ruined our friendship before it even really got started. She was such an amazing girl and I knew that I wanted to spend every moment that I could with her. But how could I know if she felt the same way about me? But if she didn’t feel that way about me, why would she have cuddled into me so much? She seemed just as relaxed and comfortable as I was.

                Harry must have noticed my scattered thoughts as I walked up to the side of the stage with the lads. He cocked his head to the side before tapping me on the back.

                “Relax mate, don’t let a bird bring you down.”

                But what he didn’t understand was that she hadn’t brought me down. Elysa  was the best thing that had ever happened to me, and I already knew it. But it was getting loud and I didn’t have time to explain, so I just took a deep breath and nodded in his direction.

                The crowd that night was amazing. Probably one of the best we ever had. They were so loud it was mental. Someone threw a teddy bear up on stage and it was dressed like me. I saw it coming at me and smiled as I caught it, thanking the fan that threw it at us. In addition to the bear there were plenty of bras. That’s something I’ll never understand – why girls throw bras at us. What would they want us to do with them? Save them until we can pass them down to our daughters?

                About half way through the show I looked over to just off the stage and saw Elysa there. She had the biggest smile I had ever seen on another person’s face. It was so beautiful that I almost forgot my part in Up All Night. I pointed to her and smiled as I crossed back to the other side of the stage and continued the show.

                From that point on, I was singing for Elysa. I was singing for the girl who had an insane life. The girl whose parents were in an awkward situation and whose brother was the world to her. I was singing for the girl who was ready to break at any moment, but strong enough not to. I performing for the girl that had gone through more than anyone her age should ever have to go through, and yet still managed to be completely dorky and fun loving. This show was for Elysa, but this show also for every girl in the world like her.

**Elysa’s POV**

                Liam looked so happy while he was up there singing and performing with the boys. I couldn’t blame him, the crowd was louder than anything I had ever experienced before. I was lost in thought when he looked over at me, smiled, and winked. I giggled a bit when he turned around to cross the stage.

                It kept hitting me at weird moments that I was actually at a One Direction concert, that I was actually friends with Liam Payne. And then the best part hit me – he had kissed me. It was only on the cheek, but still, he had kissed me. Since no boy in my life had ever liked me in any way other than as a best friend, this was a pretty big deal for me. And when he smiled at me from the stage, I came a scary realization. _I’ve fallen for this boy._

                The concert eventually ended and my shy, embarrassed self felt the need to avoid Liam even though I wanted nothing more than to be with him. I retreated back to the room we had been sitting in before the concert, and sat on the same couch. The second I heard footsteps coming down the hall, I pulled out my phone and used it to pretend to be occupied. I was relieved when it was Niall that came in the room first.

                “Hey,” I said. He nodded his head and came over to sit next to me. For a moment he didn’t speak, but then he looked over to me.

                “You like the show, mate?”

                “Of course I did! Y’all were amazing!” And the next thing I knew, I had gone off on a tangent about how much I loved the group. Niall smiled and laughed the entire time. He was really sweet about it. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry I shouldn’t have-“

                “No it’s fine,” he cut me off. “You’re great. Talk all you want!”

                I chuckled and at that moment, the rest of the boys crossed through the room to get to their dressing room. Liam looked right at me and smiled. I felt awkward and I could tell that he did too.

                “He really likes you, Elysa. You know that, right?” I was taken back completely. I turned back to Niall, expecting more from him, but he got up and started to walk away. “I gotta go change, catch ya later babe!” 


	6. Chapter 5

  **Liam’s POV**

                I walked into the dressing room just thinking to myself how awkward the situation had been as I passed her sitting on the couch. I shook myself out of it though as I changed into an old T shirt and some grey sweats. Niall walked in the room after the rest of us and came up to me. I had seen him sitting and talking with Elysa when I first got off stage.

                “Bonding with Elysa, mate?” I asked him. He chuckled and nodded as he started throwing his shirt into a corner of the room.

                “What’s the deal with her anyway?” Zayn asked me as he mindlessly searched through his hair products. I sighed, I had no idea what to say. “That bad?” I couldn’t help but chuckle.

                The lads kept asking me pestering questions, but I ignored them and left the dressing room to meet back with Elysa. I nervously looked at my watch, not knowing what else to do. It was 11pm and by California law, Elysa couldn’t drive herself this late at night. I took a deep breath, unsure of what I was about to do, but I did it anyway.

                We sat next to each other in the car with the other lads as we headed back to the hotel. I could feel that Elysa was nervous. I couldn’t blame her. She was still young and the prospect of spending the night with someone like me could easily scare a girl like her away. But it didn’t scare her away.

                The six of us chatted in the car together. It made me happy to see Elysa getting along with the rest of the lads so well. I could tell that they truly wanted to be friends with her, and she was more than just a crazy teenage fan girl. She really wanted to get to know all of us as well, and that was nice.

                By the time we got to the hotel, Louis and Zayn had fallen asleep, Niall was busy on his phone, and Harry was daydreaming out the window. I suddenly realized that Elysa and I had been holding hands for most of the car ride. I felt her hand shift and I was afraid she was going to pull back, but she didn’t. She smiled at me and grabbed onto my hand a little bit tighter.

                “Well, this is goodnight,” Louis said to Elysa while winking at me. He hugged Elysa and the lads all went their separate ways to their room.

                I led Elysa down the hall to my own room, her hand warm and fitting perfectly in my own. It was nice. We didn’t have anything to say to each other, but the silence wasn’t awkward. It was just nice.

                We finally reached my room and I slid the key through the spot in the door before opening up for us. “Well, this is it.” I could tell by the look on her face that “it” was not the word she would have used.

                “Liam I … I’ve never been in a suite before. “ She whispered to me. I let go of her hand as I felt her straying away from me and I watched as she explored the room with big eyes. It was like seeing a kid in a candy store – adorable, sweet, and amazing. As she finished exploring the room, we sat down on the edge of the bed together.

                “So I was thinking,” she looked at me with curiosity as I continued, “of doing a twitcam tonight. But you’ll have to be absolutely silent! They can’t know that you’re here.” She nodded her head in excitement and we set up the computer.

**Elysa’s POV**

                I had always seen how much fun he had while talking to the fans like this, but seeing in person was just something else. His smile was even brighter than I thought possible. I could just sit and stare at him for hours, I wanted to sit and stare at him for hours, but I know how creepy that would be.

                Pretty quickly into the twitcam we invented our own type of sign language. We were able to talk to each other and make jokes. I even wrote down a few questions and slid them across the table. The rest of the fans seemed to pick up on my existence pretty quickly though.

                “No one is here! It’s just me and my…ghost!” Liam was such a bad liar and everyone knew it. Just like the cookie man trend, _Liam’s Ghost_ was trending on Twitter for a few minutes. He and I were in fits of laughter and he knew he had to stop the twitcam. He said goodbye to all of the fans watching and closed the computer.

                He smiled as he flopped back down on the bed behind him and patted the fluffy white sheets beside him. I looked at him curiously for a moment.

                “What I am supposed to sleep in?” I asked. His face dropped for a moment as neither of us had really thought of that up until now. Then a light bulb seemed to go off in his mind. He got up and tossed one of his T shirts and basketball shorts at me and chuckled as I walked towards the bathroom.

                “Get cozy!” He shouted after me.

                The bathroom door closed behind me and I took a deep breath. My reflection in the mirror gave me countless doubts about myself. I hated the way I looked. I closed my eyes and shook my head to make the thoughts go away. I took off my bra and changed into the clothes that Liam had given me, and hoped he wouldn’t notice I was going braless.

                I came back out and joined Liam on the bed, cuddling…as friends…without a bra? Honestly, I couldn’t figure out what we were anymore. All I knew was that we were comfortable together. I knew he made me feel safe and warm. I knew that it didn’t bother me that I was with a boy and not wearing a bra, and I knew that he hadn’t even commented on it. I cuddled in a bit further and started talking to him about the twitcam and some of the jokes and questions he was too embarrassed to read out loud.

                “You’ll never let me forget that you’re a normal fan, huh?” He was right; I didn’t want to change just because I was friends with him.

                We lay there for a few minutes, contently silent. I smiled and looked up at up him before readjusting to find a warm and comfortable spot on his chest to place my head.

                “Hey Liam?” I whispered quietly.

                “Mhmm,”

                “Can I tell you something? Can you promise not to tell anyone else though? Not even the other boys?” I have no idea what compelled me to share with him what I was about to. My stomach churned just thinking about it, but it felt right none the less.

                “Of course babe, you can tell me anything, you know that. What is it?” His hand began to stroke my back and my arms and goose bumps rose up at his touch. But soon they went away and I took a deep breath.

                “Well you know how my parents are super busy with their divorce? And how I pretty much live alone with my brother? And how I always feel crappy at the end of the day?” He simply nodded in response. “Well I don’t really like telling people this, but I was…um…” I was getting more and more nervous as the words came closer.

                “It’s ok love, you can tell me,” he encouraged. He held a bit tighter, it was as if he knew what I was about to say already.

                “I was diagnosed with depression in like…fifth grade I think…and I’m on meds…and I don’t have them with me.” I suddenly got scared, worried that something would happen. I knew it wouldn’t if I missed just one day, but I was still scared.

                “I’ll make sure you get them in the morning, love. Don’t worry about that.” He paused for a moment to think before speaking again. “Thank you for telling me. I can imagine how difficult that must have been.”

                I merely nodded my head in acknowledgement, trying hard to keep my emotions back. But sensed it quickly and shushed me softly while continuing to rub my back. I felt so comfortable with him, and I didn’t know why.

                “I don’t really tell people about that a lot…”

                He seemed to understand. “I know love. It really means a lot that you’ve told me. Really.” I smiled as he held me even tighter and I wiped away what could have been the start of a tear.

                “You know, it’s been so long that I’ve had depression…I don’t really know what it’s like to not be depressed. My doctor says it affects even the way my brain works and the way I see the world and…I guess…well…things were just so nice tonight.” I didn’t know what I was trying to say with my words, but somehow, Liam did.

                “I know Elysa, I feel the same way.” We lay there together for a bit longer, no words needed. Then he whispered softly. “Elysa, I am so glad you wrote me that letter.”

                I smiled and moved my head up to his face a bit. “Me too.” I stumbled to try and say something more. “I’m tired Li-“ but he cut me off with a kiss-on my lips.

                It was sweet and he was very careful not to push the boundaries. He knew I didn’t have much experience in that department. At first I stayed perfectly still, but eventually I warmed up to his lips and figured out how to work with them. It was just a short kiss, but it felt as if it could have lasted for hours on end – and I wouldn’t have minded that.

                I finally pushed him away a bit. “I’m a virgin Liam,” I reminded him. I felt a little bit embarrassed, but after stories I had heard from the boys, I felt the need to say it. After all, we were kissing in a bed together.

                He chuckled a bit. “I know, I wasn’t going to. I just…I’ve been wanting to kiss you…” He said it sweetly and smiled at me. I noticed a twinkle in his eyes as we sat there together.

                “Even after what I just told you?” I asked him shyly.

                “Especially after what you just told me,” he assured me.

I smiled and rested my head back down on his chest. I felt a small chill go through my body as Liam squeezed my body one more time. After a short while, I thought I heard Liam humming something, so I looked up at him. He noticed right away and stopped.

“No, keep going,” I encouraged him.

“You wouldn’t mind if I sang to you?”

“MIND?” I was baffled. “Liam, you’re a famous pop star. I would _love_ it if you would sing to me.” I told him, rubbing his own arm. I could feel from his body that he was smiling as he continued.

“It’s just…it’s kind of a sad song…”

“I don’t mind one bit.”

He sang softly, hitting every note perfectly. He ran his fingers through my long hair and I became quickly relaxed. I’m not sure when, but I eventually fell asleep in his arms, feeling better than ever before.

Let me hold you tight   
If only for one night   
Let me keep you near   
To ease away your fear   
It would be so nice   
If only for one night   
  
I won't tell a soul   
No one has to know   
If you want to be totally discreet   
I'll be at your side   
If only for one night   
  
Your eyes say things I never hear from you   
And my knees are shaking too   
But I'm willing, willing to go thru  
I must be crazy   
Standing in this place   
But I'm feeling no disgrace   
  
For asking...  
  
Let me hold you tight   
If only for one night   
Let me keep you near   
To ease away your fear   
It would be so nice   
If only for one night   
  
I tell you what I need is   
One night, one night oh (and oh, oh)   
  
What I need is   
One night, one night   
Of your love, of you love, of your loving ooh   
  
I'm asking...   
  
Let me take you home   
To keep you safe and warm   
Till the early dawn   
Warms up to the sun   
It would be so nice if only for one night   
  
If only for one night   
If only for one night   
If only for one night, night, night, yeah one night   
If only for one.........night


	7. Chapter 6

**Liam’s POV**

                I woke up early in the morning. The moment I opened up my eyes I was caught up in Elysa’s beauty. I instantly started humming a tune that I thought was made for this exact moment.

Am I asleep, am I awake, or somewhere in between?  
I can’t believe that you are here, lying next to me  
Or did I dream that we were perfectly entwined?  
Like branches on a tree, or twigs caught in a vine?

 

Like all those days and weeks and months I tried to steal a kiss  
And all those sleepless nights and daydreams where I pictured this,  
I’m just the underdog who finally got the girl  
And I am not ashamed to tell it to the world

 

Truly, madly, deeply, I am  
Foolishly, completely falling  
And somehow, you caved all my walls in  
So baby, say you’ll always keep me  
Truly, madly, crazy, deeply in love with you  
In love with you

 

Should I put coffee and granola on a tray in bed  
And wake you up with all the words I still haven’t said?  
And tender touches, just go show you how I feel  
Or should I act so cool, like it was no big deal?

 

Wish I could freeze this moment in a frame and stay like this  
I’ll put this day back on replay and keep reliving it  
‘cause here’s the tragic truth if you don’t feel the same  
My heart would fall apart if someone said your name

 

Truly, madly, deeply, I am  
Foolishly, completely falling  
And somehow, you caved all my walls in  
So baby, say you’ll always keep me  
Truly, madly, crazy, deeply in love with you

 

I hope I’m not a casualty,  
Hope you won’t get up and leave  
I don’t mean that much to you  
But to me it’s everything, everything

Truly, madly, deeply, I am  
Foolishly, completely falling

  
And somehow you caved all my walls in  
So baby, say you’ll always keep me  
Truly, madly, crazy, deeply in love with you  
In love with you  
In love with you

With you

 

**Elysa’s POV**

                I had actually been awake for a while before I noticed Liam humming a soft tune. I still can’t believe where I was and what’s happening. There was almost nothing Liam didn’t know about me now, almost nothing I didn’t know about him. I had never been this close with a person in my life .And then last night, we kissed.

                I took a deep breath and opened my eyes to see the most beautiful human being lying beside me. Liam kissed my forehead and giggled. Anyone else probably would have kissed him back right then, but with my limited experience, I felt awkward and nervous. Instead, I just sort of looked up at him and saw the sparkle in his eyes in this early morning.

                Seeing him like this, in such a raw state, nearly gave me chills. He seemed so vulnerable in the morning. I felt so vulnerable in the morning. But I felt so safe when I was with him. He had held me close last night, just as he sang he would. And now it was morning, and I secretly knew that the song was also right in that I would have to leave at some point.

                I was shaken out of my trance when my phone vibrated. I groaned at the early morning as I rolled over to pick it up. It was my brother.

                _When are you coming home? I think my Giant’s shirt is in your room and I need it._

                I rolled my eyes. My brother might have been older, but for some reason I felt like I was taking care of him today. Other days he would be my parent, but today I was his. I loved him, but he could also be such a pain.

                “What was that?” Liam began to sit up as he spoke softly.  

                “Just my brother, I stole his shirt and he got mad.”

Liam chuckled a bit as I tapped out a message back to my brother trying to be as discrete as possible so he wouldn’t get too protective over me. I rolled over to ask Liam how I would get back to my car, which was still at the venue from last night, but he had rolled out of bed and walked into the bathroom. I got up and searched around the room, looking for my clothes from last night.

I wasn’t wearing a bra to sleep, so when I lifted Liam’s shirt off of my body I got goose bumps. I didn’t have to look down to know that it must have been showing. Just then, I thought I heard the bathroom door open. I tried to ignore it, hoping it was my imagination. But as I turned my body towards the sound I saw Liam standing in the doorway staring directly at me.

I immediately dropped down to the ground facing the other way and covering my chest, feeling instantly embarrassed. Other than a small gasp, I had let out no sound from my mouth. I wasn’t ready for him to see me like this yet. I wasn’t ready for anyone to see me like this yet. He was practically my first kiss…LAST NIGHT.

“I…um…gosh I’m so sorry…” I heard Liam stutter.

I heard the bathroom door close again and I turned just my head to make sure I was alone. I grabbed my shirt, bra, and pants from the floor and slipped them on my body as quickly as I could. Then I walked over to the bathroom door and knocked shyly.

“Liam? I’m…um…you can come out now…” I said quietly. He apologized again as he was opening the door and I could tell that it was sincere. He didn’t seem like the type of guy to try and spy on me like that.

Just as I was beginning to relax a little bit more, Niall and Louis ran in the room. They clearly didn’t expect me to be there still, because they started cheering and making jokes at Liam for having me over last night.

“Guys! It wasn’t like that, ok?” Liam defended himself as he took a step closer to me.

“Oh, hey Elysa. I hope Liam was too rough on you last night!” Louis nudged me a bit and I immediately blushed. Liam jabbed him with his elbow as hard as he could, or so it seemed, and I walked back over to my phone to try and distract myself and hide.

“So Liam, what are we doing today? Don’t know of much crazy excitement we can do on this day of…” Louis trailed off.  

I was of course confused. Liam hadn’t said anything about today off, but I guessed it just didn’t really come up while we were talking.

“I don’t know, what is there to do around here?” Liam turned to ask me.

I thought for a moment before answering. “Nothing, absolutely nothing. The coolest thing middle schoolers do after school is go to Starbucks or a candy store, and since middle schoolers essentially run this town, that’s about all there is to do.” I paused for a minute to think back to the times where I used to try and actually talk to people and make friends before continuing. “Some of the freshmen who think they’re really cool hang out outside of McDonald’s, but that’s literally it. I have to get home anyways…”

“That’s and awesome idea!” Louis cheered. I was confused; I hadn’t given them any ideas. “We’ll drive you back to your car and then you can stop at your house to change and you can show us this awesome candy store you were talking about.”

I looked over to Liam and shrugged. He didn’t seem absolutely thrilled about the idea, but he agreed and sent a quick text to Harry, Zayn, and Paul so we could get ready to go.

 

**Liam’s POV**

                I was shocked when Elysa agreed to take us to her house and show us around her small town. She had told me about her parents never being around her brother being an awkward mix of over protective and not caring. But I held her hand tightly for the entire time we were in the car with Paul and lads, and I sat in the front seat in her own car once we got to it.

                Driving with her in her car was fun. She insisted on not turning on any music, and we all knew it was because the first things to play would be our music. She was stubborn though, and we all just talked the entire way to her house.

                When we arrived she grabbed my hand again. It was in a nice quiet neighborhood, there were kids playing in the street, the typical Californian Suburban lifestyle. I could hear her breath quickening with every step we took towards her front door. As we got to it, she pulled her hand away from mine and I could tell that she was nervous.

                “I’m home!” She shouted after unlocking the door and letting us all into her house.

                “El! Where’s my shirt?” I heard a deeper voice coming from across the house.

                “Which one?”

                “You have more than one?”

                Elysa giggled as she yelled back and forth with who I assumed to be her brother. I tried to grab her hand, but she once again pulled back and refused. I can’t lie and say it felt good, but I understood that she was worried about her brother saying something.

                “You guys can sit here I guess, the kitchen is over there. I’m just gonna talk to Sam real quickly and then go take a shower.” She smiled and walked to the other side of the house.

                The lads and I stayed quiet as we tried to hear what Elysa and Sam were talking about, but it was a muffled conversation and we eventually gave up. Pretty quickly though, the lads spread out.

Niall and Louis headed for the kitchen, which was promising since Louis was actually a fairly decent cook. I could hear them opening and closing all of the cabinets and drawers before Louis shouted back that he would make us all some sandwiches.

Zayn, Harry and I went over to the kitchen table to wait for them. I could hear Elysa and Sam a little bit better now. It sounded like he wasn’t too thrilled about us being here. I could understand that. He was a protective older brother. I heard her footsteps go up the stairs and I heard a thump and a flick of the TV, meaning that Sam was probably too preoccupied to come and talk to us right at that moment.

“She’s amazing,” Zayn said after a moment. I couldn’t help but blush. Harry gave me a nudge to tease me and I gave him a bit of a death stare.

“She’s in the shower right now…NAKED!” He and Zayn chuckled as I rolled my eyes at their immaturity.

Luckily, Niall and Louis walked into the room with seven nicely made sandwiches in hand. They placed them all in the center of the table before Louis called over to where we all assumed Sam must be sitting and watching TV.

“We made sandwiches, do you want one mate?”

There was no response for a good thirty seconds, but eventually we heard the TV flick off and footsteps come towards us. Sam stood in the doorway, taking all of us in, as we all took him in as well. He was fairly well built, but it was clear that he didn’t work out. His hair was much darker than Elysa’s, but I definitely was able to see some resemblance in his face and few freckles.

He took a deep breath and then walked over to one of the empty chairs. He sighed and looked at all of us before reaching for one of the sandwiches in the middle of the table.

“We haven’t used this table in so long…” he mumbled sort of under his breath. I looked around at the other boys and tried to signal them to sit down and be quiet, to wait for Sam to say something to us first. I didn’t want to start out with a bad impression with the most important person in Elysa’s life.

But much to my dismay, he didn’t say a word. He simply stared at his sandwich as he stuffed it in his mouth and ate it as if he had never eaten before. The rest of us stayed silent, trying still not to disturb him. Finally though, he spoke up.

“Are all of these Turkey sandwiches?”  The question seemed a little bit strange, but Louis answered quickly.

“Yeah?”

“Mate, Elysa’s vegetarian,” I reminded him. Louis hit himself on the head as he went back to the kitchen to make another sandwich with a lot of cheese in it for when Elysa came down after her shower.

“So…Sam…” I tried to engage him but he gave me a sharp look. He swallowed his bite before taking a deep breath and speaking up for real.

“Look, I don’t know what’s going on with you and my sister. She talks about you all the time though. She’s never talked about anyone like she talks about you. I’ve never had to deal with her being with a guy so just…just don’t hurt her, ok?”

I looked directly into his eyes to show him how sincere I was when I answered. “I would never hurt her. Ever.” He smiled and nodded his head before taking another bite and continuing.

“So do y’all actually aim for the whole twelve year old fan base thing?” He asked while chuckling a bit.

“Not really.” I answered before taking another bite of my own sandwich.

“Nickelodeon gave us this deal a while back and they put us on the Kids Choice Awards and it just kind of happened.” Harry added.

“Yeah, cuz y’all are older than Elysa, aren’t you?” He asked.

“Harry’s seventeen, and Zayn, Liam and I are eighteen, and Louis is nineteen,” Niall answered him.

“Oh, y’all are more like my age. I’m nineteen myself,” Sam answered.

I was happy that things were going so well with Sam. I was nervous at first and it had started off rocky, but it was going better than I ever could have hoped. Just then, his phone vibrated and he looked at it. He wiped off his face before turning to look back up at us.

“Hey, I’ve gotta go,” he said to all of us before turning to look straight at me. “Take of her, ok?” I nodded in response as he dashed out of their front door and hopped in what I assumed must be one of his friend’s cars.

The moment Sam closed the door; Harry turned and looked at Louis. “I bet we could find her room…” Louis didn’t even answer, but instead dashed off away from the table and started opening all of the doors as quickly and quietly as possible.

The first few doors he opened were bathrooms, and then he noticed the stairs. He rushed up them and the rest of us followed him, just to make sure he didn’t get himself into too much trouble.

He opened one door but it was clearly Sam’s. Then another and it was just a linen closet. Then he opened the third door and it was just right, it was Elysa’s room.

“It’s over here!” he sort of whisper yelled so that we could here but so that he wouldn’t disturb Elysa in the shower.

Harry, Niall, and Zayn scampered off towards where Louis was, excited to see what they could find. But I took my time. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see exactly what was in there. Wouldn’t it be sort of an invasion of privacy? But I couldn’t deny myself the fact that I wanted to see what was in there, so I eventually followed.

 At first I just stood in the doorway and peered inside. It was a good sized bedroom, but the floor was pretty messy. I saw pictures of Elysa and Sam covering the walls, cute quotes, a few little notes from friends. I stood close to wall looking at one official looking piece of paper that was hung and framed near the head of her bed. It was a report card from her freshman year, she had gotten straight As. I smiled before looking around to notice that there were no posters of us in her room. It was probably for the better though.

I turned around and saw Harry and Louis sitting on her bed, looking through her old year books. They were commenting on all of the girls with all of their weird standards.

Zayn had made his way over to Elysa’s bookshelf, browsing who knows what. He made a small noise of approval every once in a while as he touched the spine of several books. It seemed to be a normal book collection of girly books and Harry Potter, the usual I guess.

I turned around again and saw Niall searching through Elysa’s open closet. I’m not sure what he was looking for, but he pulled out and assessed the clothes as if they were his own. Eventually though, he got a bit cheeky. I could see that he was searching for something and I knew he found it when I heard his loud laugh. He held up one of Elysa’s bras and all the lads cheered.

“Put that down Niall!” I yelled at him. It was an invasion of Elysa’s privacy.

“Yeah, that belongs to Liam!” Harry gave me a face and laughed. I pulled the bra out of Niall’s hands and put it back in the drawer before closing it. “But actually though, how was last night in the hotel?” he asked me.

I took a deep breath before letting it all come out. I walked them through the night, from the twitcam to how I had given her my own clothes to wear. I stayed vague as I told them we got into a pretty deep conversation while cuddling, and then I told them about how I had taken a leap and kissed her before singing her to sleep.

“But really mate, does she put out?” Harry asked. I could not believe how rude he was being and I hit him on the arm. Although I knew it was the question on all of their minds.

“She’s only sixteen mate. She’s only kissed one other guy before, never even had a boyfriend. She’s young.” I smiled and blushed a bit while telling them this. I knew her inexperience was the kind of thing that she was generally open about, and it reminded me of just how adorable she really was.

Niall changed the topic quickly, asking what we thought of the color on the walls. I was confused until I looked towards the doorway and saw Elysa standing there, giving us her evil eyes.

“Sorry! Sorry!” I rushed out, covering my eyes. Although she was wrapped in her towel, I was afraid of looking and making her feel uncomfortable after this morning.

As we waited outside of her door, I heard her opening and closing the same drawers that Niall had been searching through. I hoped she wouldn’t notice if a few things were out of place. I heard her start to hum a nice melody to herself and I couldn’t help but think about her standing there in her towel. She looked so beautiful and I wanted nothing more than rip it off of her and see all that there was of her beautiful body to see, but I knew that I couldn’t do that.

After a few minutes, I noticed the humming stop, and the other boys seemed to as well. Louis knocked on her door softly.

“Ready, princess?” he asked, poking a bit of fun. She didn’t respond, so he knocked again. “Princess?” he asked again.

Then we heard the sniffled and the tears. I pushed Louis out of the way and opened the door slowly to see Elysa sitting on her bed at her computer, tears streaming down her face. The lads stood by the door, genuinely concerned, but knowing that they should stay where they were. I sat down next to Elysa and put my arm around her waist as I pulled her in tightly.

“What’s wrong, love?”

She simply pointed at the screen. She was on Tumblr, scrolling through her dashboard. The picture she pointed at was of us, earlier in the day, when we were going from Paul’s car to her own back in the parking lot at the venue from the night before. I could tell right away why she was upset. She was just a normal person; she wasn’t used to being exploited like that.

I hugged her in tighter and whispered in her ears that everything would be ok. I put my own finger on her mouse pad and moved to her Facebook page. I was hoping that the Tumblr post was the only issue, but much to my dismay, it was not.

Her wall was filled with rude comments from girls who I assumed she went to school with. It was unbelievable. I wanted more than anything in the world to make everything completely ok, but I knew that I just couldn’t.

“Elysa…” I whispered to her. But honestly, I had no idea what to say, so I just pulled her in tighter and kissed her forehead. Then I turned to lads, still standing in the doorway, and signaled to them to close the door and leave us for a moment. They obliged.

I turned back to Elysa and took a deep breath before I started talking. “Look, Elysa. This sucks, and those girls…those girls are just jealous. I know this is difficult for you, but it’s part of what comes with being associate with us. I’m sorry this has to happen, I truly am. It’s not easy, and it’s not going away, but it WILL get easier. I can promise you that. You are my friend, and I care about you.”

She sniffled a bit and looked back up at me. “Friends? Just…friends?” she asked.

I took a huge deep breath. I was afraid this was going to come up and I was afraid of how to answer it. “I don’t know. I don’t know what we are Elysa. But I know that I care about you, I know that I want you in my life, and I have a pretty good feeling that you want me in your life too.”

She rested her head on my chest before sniffling and speaking again. “I just don’t know if I can deal with all of this.” She motioned to her computer as she spoke and I tried to hold her close to me to relax her.  But it was difficult for me to hear. It broke my heart to see her in so much pain.

“Elysa,” I paused and took a deep breath before using one finger to move her chin to make sure she was looking at me. “I love you.”

She looked up into my eyes, unable to say anything. She gave me a giant hug, filled with as much love as she possibly could convey. She pulled out and kept looking at me. I looked to her lips and she leaned in a bit, still unsure of exactly what to do. I went in for the kiss but I had to back out, chuckling a bit.

“It’s ok, we can practice,” I smirked. She smiled as well and I took the moment to lean in a give her just a quick peck on the lips.

The door burst open and the lads cheered at us. I could see Elysa blushing and I squeezed her hand as the lads all laughed.

“So, are we still going to go to that candy store?” Niall asked Elysa. I looked over at her, and she slowly nodded her head.

 


	8. Chapter 7

**Elysa’s POV**

                It had been a few weeks since the surprise show and spending the night with Liam. I had taken them all to the candy store, but when we ran into Sam, he told me I had to go home. I guess I understood, I mean he was only looking out for me. In our small town, news travels fast, and he didn’t want me to get hurt again.

                But in those few weeks, I had missed Liam more than I thought possible. It had been so long since we kissed, since I saw him in person, since I was able to hug him tight. But I was still able to talk to all of the boys. I texted all of them, all of the time. Time differences were sometimes difficult, but since they were awake at weird hours anyway, it all seemed to work itself out.

                I Skyped with Liam at least once a week. We both knew a long distance relationship would be stupid, so we were kind of putting it off. But in my mind, he was mine, and I knew that I was his.

                At least it was almost Spring break. I had a ton of tests and projects due in this final week before the break, but I knew it would all be worth it. In just a week I would have freedom from school. Although it would be a bitter sweet freedom as I would have more time to mope around and miss Liam.

                Tonight I was working on a History project when my computer sprang the sound of a Skype call on me. I saw it was Liam and I answered instantly.

                “Liam, I’m studying!” I tried my best to complain to him, but he could see right through me. He knew how badly I wanted to talk to him.

                “I know I know, but look, I have something to tell you.”

                The last time Liam had big news for me the extra show. My heart suddenly dropped from my chest to my stomach. I had no idea what he could be telling me, and I wasn’t sure if it was really good new or bad news.

                “Well hurry up and tell me,” I tried for it to appear that I wasn’t giving him my full attention so that he would understand how much I needed to study.

                “Elysa, look at me for a minute.” I rolled my eyes and gave him a skeptical look even though I was beyond anxious to hear what he had to say. “On Friday, as soon as you finish your last class, you’re coming to London.”

                I couldn’t help but laugh. “Liam, I don’t have that kind of money to just get up one day and decide to fly halfway across the world.”

                “I know, but I do.”

                I froze, a smile slowly forming on my face. I couldn’t believe it. Was he really doing this for me? Flying me all the way to London just for a week of spring break?

                “I talked to Sam about it already. He thought it would be a good idea to get you up and out of the house, and I think so too.”  A smile spread across his face and I could feel it being mirrored by my own.

                The rest of week went slower than I ever thought possible. All I wanted each day was for the day to end so that it would be closer to the time that I would get to see Liam again. I missed him more than I thought I would. Sam teased me about it every day, but I knew it was coming from a place of love. He was really protective of me, and to see him say it was ok for me to fly to London to be with Liam was a good feeling.

                Sam drove me to the airport after my last class on Friday. I had only a small carry-on bag since I was only going to be staying in London for a week. I knew this airport well and I was able to maneuver my way through it with ease. To my surprise, the ticket that Liam had bought for me was first class. I had never flown first class before and I was in sort of a state of shock.

                The seats were bigger and much nicer than the regular ones that I was used to flying in. The food was actually really good and they gave me a real meal. It was even quiet enough for me to get some sleep on the long flight.

                Eventually I heard the captain’s voice over the speaker letting us know that we would be landing in about five minutes. The butterflies in my stomach escalated as I realized how soon I would be with Liam. I shuffled the magazines off of my lap and into the pocket of the seat in front of me before pulling my headphones out of my ears and turning off my iPod. I carefully wrapped the cord around the small device as I sat back, still in wonder of my first class surroundings.

                Before I knew it, the plane had landed. A huge smile appeared across my face as the seat belt sign went off. I stood up to get my carry-on bag out from the overhead storage. With just my luck, it fell down and almost squashed me. But I was able to gather myself back together and I started to walk off the plane and down the terminal.

                I had never been in this airport before, so I was feeling fairly lost. I had to stop and look at maps and signs every few feet or so, or at least that’s what it felt like. Somehow, I made it to the end of the terminal and followed the exit signs. And that’s when I finally saw him.

                He was standing just a few feet away from where I was supposed to exit the terminal. Next to him were Paul and the other boys. They were surrounded by fans and that’s when my wide smile dropped. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to run up and hug him and kiss him like I wanted to, at least not yet. I saw the pain in his eyes that must have been echoed by own as he was shuffled out of the small area.

                I stood frozen for a moment as he was dragged away from me. It was more difficult than I thought it would be. He was so close, yet so far away, and there was nothing I could do to change it.

                I eventually made my way through the exit and picked up my phone to text Liam, but he had already texted me first.

                _If you have any bags, security will get them. One of them should bring you to the car after some of the fans leave. See you soon :) x_

                I sighed. I guess this was the new life I was getting into. I had security managing when and how I could see the boy that I cared about the most, and when he could see me. But I took a deep breath, knowing what I had to do, at least for now.

                I looked up from my phone as I noticed the screaming fans dying down. A nice relaxed looking face came up to me and introduced herself to me.

                “Hello, I’m Kelly. You must be Elysa. I’m part of One Direction’s security team. Follow me please.”

                She didn’t look that much older than me or even the boys, which made me wonder how she had gotten such an amazing job. She wasn’t intimidating in least bit either, which made me baffled as to why she was a security member.

Despite the confusion in my mind, I smiled and followed Kelly outside. We passed by the car that the boys were in, which was surrounded by screaming fans. She led me around to a small ally way. This was definitely not glamorous in any sense of the word, but I didn’t mind much. If this is what I had to do to see Liam, then this is what I would do.

We sat down together on a small bench. Her face held a warm and inviting smile and I instantly felt comfortable.

“So how did you get a job as security for the boys?” I asked her, genuinely curious. She chuckled a bit, but just as she opened her mouth, we were interrupted by Paul waving from the front seat of a big black car.

“We can talk more later,” she told me as she stood up and motioned for me to go towards the car. She opened the door up for me and just like that she was the last thing on my mind.

Inside the car were all five boys, but my eyes went directly to Liam’s. I was intending to get inside, but instead, he came rushing out. He gave me the biggest hug I have ever experienced. I closed my eyes as I buried my face into his warm chest and arms. I felt so safe, so happy, so…perfect. Everything about the moment was just perfect.

As he slowly released me, I kept my arms limp around his neck. I looked up into his eyes. I loved this boy with all my heart, but as always, all I could do to express that was awkward. The only word I could manage to scrum together was “Hi” but somehow, that was enough.

Liam gave me a small peck on the cheek and led me inside the car with the rest of the boys. I hopped in behind him and took the empty seat beside him. The other boys all greeted me with smiles and hellos. It was nice to see them all again.

I felt so close to Niall. After talking to him on the couch after their concert, I felt like we had really bonded. I texted him almost as much as I texted Liam between the time of the concert and now. He was such a great friend and I wanted to have that kind of friendship with all of the boys.

Harry started telling us a story about one of the mothers of a fan hitting on him at a signing the other day. He was really proud and I couldn’t help but giggle. I rested my head on Liam’s shoulder as I listened to the excited boy sitting across from me. He was only about a year older than me, and I admired his ability to be so confident at such a young age when I clearly was not. I wish I could be like that. But I was too scared to even tell people about the boy that I had fallen for. I was too scared to even ask him if he had truly fallen for me.

“So, how’d she compare to Caroline?” I smirked as I teased Harry a bit. Niall erupted with laughter and Harry gave me a bit of a death stare. “Gotta ask…” I shyly brushed off.

I looked up at Liam, and his face told me it was ok and not to worry about Harry’s reaction. I turned to look at Niall instead, and with a smile on my face I asked him a burning question that I had had for a while now.

“What kind of food does Nando’s have anyway?”

His face lit up at the words of my question. “You’ve never been there? Paul, to Nando’s!” he commanded to the front seat. I couldn’t help but laugh at his excitement.

Then, out of nowhere, Liam suddenly turned and kissed me softly on the cheek. It was all I could to do keep from covering my face in embarrassment, so I blushed instead. I could see the look in Liam’s eyes that meant he hadn’t intended to embarrassed me. He gave me a small bit of confidence that I needed to be able to look up at the rest of the boys again.

Zayn laughed at my expense. “We don’t all have our first kiss at 9, Malik,” I tried to tease him. It didn’t work though, he seemed rather proud of his accomplishment.

“Means I’ve got more practice is all,” he winked at Liam. Liam rolled his eyes in response. They all clearly knew how inexperienced I was. It wasn’t my fault that prior to Liam no boy had ever shown any bit of interest in me.

I managed to shake it off just as Niall bounced off of the edge of his seat. “Right then, it’s on that corner Elysa!” His arm was fully extended out of the window pointing at the Nando’s on the corner. I chuckled a bit as the car pulled up and stopped in front of the small restaurant.

 Niall rushed out of the car, ushering the rest of us to follow suit. Zayn, Harry, and Louis walked just behind him as Liam and I took our time. I wasn’t worried about people taking pictures of us, seeing as the boys were currently on a day off and not expected to be anywhere, so I didn’t hide from holding Liam’s hand on our way into the building. If I had been in less of daze at that moment, however, I might have noticed a few flashes out of the corner of my eye, but I didn’t. I was so into the moment with Liam, in such bliss to finally be with him again, that nothing else in the world mattered to me anymore.

He led me into Nando’s and explained the menu to me, which ultimately was pointless as I just had Niall order me some of his favorites with the condition that he would pick out all of the meat. He was so excited to be sharing this place with me after I had told him about In-N-Out.

It made me smile, but also miss California a bit. In all honesty, I had never really felt home sick before. But this was a little different. It had only been a few hours but I already found myself missing the streets that I grew up on, the school names I constantly heard, the freeway numbers, just those little things. I thought about telling Liam of the small bit of sadness slowly growing inside of me, but I pushed it away and instead enjoyed the meal that Niall was nearly shoving into my face.

Needless to say, we finish eating fairly quickly. But the six of us just sort of sat at the table, telling stories, laughing, bonding. Every once in a while one of them would bring up something I told them back in the letter that had started this whole adventure. I was stunned each time that they had managed to remember these things. I thought I was such an average person, but apparently I was wrong.

Louis was the best story teller. He was telling me about the first time a fan tried to sneak back stage. I could tell the other boys were bored with the story, as they not only experienced it but had also probably heard it hundreds of times over again. I sat and listened intently to Louis as the other boys gradually got up and went outside. By this time it was at least 10pm so they weren’t going to get mobbed by fans. Instead, they played soccer in a nearby field while I stayed and talked with Louis.

“Then Paul said the most hilarious thing,” Louis went on, making me laugh every few seconds. He was such a great guy. I think he could secretly tell that there was a small bit of homesickness building up inside of me. That  must have been why he was trying so hard to cheer me up.

He finished the story with a great punch line and I laughed so hard water nearly squirted out of my nose.

“Glad to see SOMEONE doesn’t think my stories are boring.”

I shrugged, “Of course not, you’re hilarious.”

We smiled at each other as I took another sip of the water sitting in front of me.

“So tell me about you and Liam.” I froze. He had said it as if it was the most casual thing in the world. I looked up at him, silently questioning his intent. I could see on his face that there was some sort guilt slowly running through him. “you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”

“No, it’s ok,” I assured him. “It’s just that…I don’t know exactly.”

I could tell by the look on his face that he immediately understood. He got up and sat down again next to me, putting his arm around my neck for support.

“I just…I don’t know exactly how I feel. Boys have never been a part of my life in this way before. I mean, my best friend Zach is a boy, but that’s different. Liam’s really the first boy I’ve ever kissed, and the first person to make me feel how I feel. I just don’t know what the feeling is.” I explained to him softly.

Louis listened well before speaking up. “He really cares about you, Elysa. I can see it in his eyes and the way he talks about you. I’ve never seen him like this before. If he’s sending mixed signals, it’s just because he’s trying to protect you. I promise what Liam feels is real.”

“I know,” I whispered. “But I just need to hear it from him I guess.” I turned my head and looked out the window where the boys were finishing up their soccer game. “And I live so far…” I trailed.

Before Louis had a chance to answer, the boys had come back into Nando’s and were arguing about the outcome of the game. Louis got up again and went to his old seat so that Liam could sit down next to me.

“Ew Liam, you smell gross,” I teased him as I noticed some sweat trickling down his face.

He giggled a bit before teasing me back. “Not as gross as you,” he stuck out his tongue. I giggled and sighed with a content smile.

Zayn looked at his watch and noticed the time and everyone agreed that it would probably be for the best if we would head back to the boys’ apartments for the night. I was exhausted from traveling and I couldn’t even figure out what the time difference here really was compared to home.

I held on to Liam’s hand tightly as we walked out of the restaurant, the place closing as we left. I turned and looked at Louis and gave him a shy smile as a thank you for letting me talk to him as we got back into the big car that the boys traveled in.

I would never quite get used to chauffeured around. All my life I had been so independent. And I missed my car almost as much as I missed my brother. But when I looked up at Liam and saw his smile and caring eyes, all of that melted away.

I buried my head into his chest as I felt his warmth surround me. I loved the feeling of his arm around me, keeping me safe. Harry and Louis tried making some jokes, but I just stuck my tongue out at them and closed my eyes, letting their gentle lull of conversation talk me to sleep.

 

**Liam’s POV**

                After a few minutes in the car I noticed Elysa’s breathing on my chest getting deeper and slower. I looked down to notice her peacefully sleeping. She looked so beautiful there, her hair casually falling all over her face and her pink lips relaxed against each other. I wish I could feel those lips against mine all the time.

                I was completely distracted by admiring Elysa, too distracted to notice my surroundings. Louis and Niall, who had been telling jokes and stories suddenly stopped as they and Zayn looked over to look at Harry’s phone. It was dead silent by the time I noticed this change in atmosphere. I could tell by the look on their faces that something was wrong, and my heart dropped into my stomach.

                I looked at Harry questioningly, waiting for an answer, but he couldn’t come up with the words. I looked to Zayn and Niall and neither of them spoke up either. Finally I looked at Louis, who usually had the guts to tell me something none of the other boys could. He looked into my eyes in a caring way.

                “Sugarscape…they…have some pictures of you….and Elysa….” He trailed off, not daring to make eye contact with me any longer.

                I froze in my spot. I knew how tough this would be for Elysa to hear. She wasn’t very good with large groups of people in public, so there was no way she would be able to handle this very well. After that Tumblr post, I had denied things enough to get the buzz to go away, but I didn’t think there was anything I would be able to do about this. There were pictures of her and me holding hands just a few hours ago outside of Nando’s.

                I looked back down to my sleeping beauty, so peaceful. Should I wake her up, break her bliss to share this bad news with her? Or let her sleep until she woke up on her own? The thought of telling her this and how she might react to it was already breaking my heart.

                “Let’s stop and take some pictures with fans,” Niall suggested to Paul. I knew what he was trying to do and so did Paul. The hope was that they would all get out of the car and leave Elysa and I with a moment alone for me to talk to her about what we had found.

                It was late at night, and there wouldn’t be many fans out, but we drove up to a park where some girls were sitting and talking and they got out of the car. I watched as they got out, one by one, giving me a smile of encouragement as they went. Niall took a football with them so they could kick it around after the fans left if I still needed more time. Paul got out of the front seat and I heard to doors click, locked. I took one last look at Elysa, so peacefully sleeping, before I did what I had to do.

                I took a deep breath and rubbed and rubbed her arm softly, feeling her smooth skin as I ushered awake. She looked at me with groggy, questioning eyes. She must have forgotten where she was so I did my best to remind her.

                “The boys went outside to see some fans.” I paused awkwardly for a moment, not sure how to break the news to her. Eventually, I managed to. “I have something to tell you Elysa.” The way she looked at me made it even more difficult for me to tell her.

                “What is it Liam?” She asked. I could tell she was curious and I could see that in her face. Soon her face changed a bit as she realized the nature of the news I was about to tell her. “Liam?” She begged for my attention.

                “Harry was searching himself on Sugarscape and he…found some things.” She still looked a bit confused. With another deep breath I continued. “about me and you. Holding hands outside of Nando’s…” I trailed off a bit by the end, taking my eye contact off of her. I’m not sure it was more difficult for.

                She lifted her hand up to my face and turned it back to face her. It was probably the most confidence she had had while touching me up to this point. Her hand stayed on my cheek as she looked into my tearful eyes. Elysa’s eyes began to water as well. It looked as if she was about to say something, but couldn’t muster the words together.

                Instead, she leaned in and hugged me, burying her head in my arms and chest. Both of our tears sped up, our breathing became shallow and quick. We weren’t even officially together and we had to go through so much. I was afraid she was going to leave already. I had to remember that she was just a normal 16 year old girl. I couldn’t put someone I cared about so much into such a difficult position.

                We sat there together, holding each other through both of our pain. It was such a horrible feeling. I wanted to close my eyes and have it all go away. I wanted Elysa to be without any of this pain. But I knew that wasn’t going to happen so easily.

                Finally, I backed up and looked her in the eyes. As if they somehow knew, the boys opened the car door at the moment.

                “Ready to go home, mate?” Louis asked me cautiously.

                “Please,” Elysa managed to whimper out.

The boys all watched Elysa and me with concern in their eyes. I brought my hand up and wiped away the tears from her face, and she did the same for me. She felt awkward and started to giggle, which in turn made me giggle. I held her tightly as Niall told a joke on our way home.

**Elysa’s POV**

Niall tried really hard to lighten in the mood in the car ride back to the boys’ apartments. It was sweet, he was so sweet. His jokes weren’t even that good, but they did lift me up a bit. Just the thought that he cared enough to try and make me feel better really helped, and I think he knew that.

                Every so often I would look up to Liam, whose tears were slowly drying like mine. I sat and just sort of thought for a while. It was such a great place to be in. I had always wanted to go to London, and now I was here with five boys who cared so much about me, one of them being Liam. It was a wonderful feeling that made the pain of the pictures slowly melt away.

                After a few minutes, Harry distracted me from my thoughts when he realized that I was still holding his phone in my hand. I handed it back to him but couldn’t help but ask how he deals with media like this so often.

                “You don’t exactly get used to it, but you get past it. Like, uhm, if you care enough about someone, the other people don’t really matter.”

                A smile emerged on my face and I looked up at Liam, into his eyes. He smiled back at me. Maybe, just maybe, I could manage to do this with him.

                The car pulled up to the boys’ apartment complex and Paul carried each of our bags towards the building. It was weird seeing someone else doing that for me when I was fully capable, but I didn’t complain. Zayn was already very groggy as he pulled himself by his bootstraps to get up the stairs. Harry just rushed off to his apartment, he was tired and probably some…”business” to take care of.

Niall was absolutely adorable though. He came up to Liam and gave him a giant Horan hug goodnight, telling him how much he loves him. He gave me a huge just as big; he must have known how much I really needed it.

Louis came up to the two of us and hugged us each goodnight as well, but not before winking at Liam and telling him to “be careful.” I rolled my eyes. Of course I knew what he meant, but I knew there was no way that would be happening tonight. I wasn’t ready and I knew that Liam respected that.

I took a look at the apartment I was about to enter. It was simple looking, but nice and modern as well. I saw the lights on in the other units. Harry and Louis’ silhouettes appeared in their kitchen and they opened the fridge. I looked over and saw Niall dancing in his room, and the lights completely off in Zayn’s. Then I looked in front of me again.

We hadn’t talked about where I would sleep. Did he have an extra bed? Would I sleep on the couch? I started to get a bit concerned as I didn’t think he had put much thought into it either. I swallowed my breath and looked at Liam, who led the way inside.

He picked up our bags and we made our way inside. He seemed more calm than I was, although I could tell that on the inside he must be just as nervous.

“This is it,” he told me with a shrug. HE led me around and showed me the kitchen, the bathroom, the TV in the living room, then he led me to his bedroom. “And this is the bedroom…I thought we could share.” He paused to look at my face. “If that’s ok with you. If you don’t want to then I’ll sleep on the couch for tonight and I can buy another bed for tomorrow.” He quickly added.

Despite not being completely comfortable with the idea of sharing the bed, I insisted that he couldn’t sleep on the couch. I headed over to my bag, pulled out some clothes and went into the bathroom to change. I came back out in a pair of short cotton shorts, an old T shirt, and a sports bra. I saw Liam sitting on his bed with his computer and I smiled. Although he was only in a pair of sweats he looked absolutely stunning to me.

I lifted up the covers of his bed and slid in, feeling more scared than I anticipated. I had shared a bed with him before back at the hotel, but that was different. This was HIS bed. I suddenly became aware of what I was wearing and how horrible I must have looked.

But none of that seemed to matter. Because when I got into the bed that night and cuddled with him as I started to drift to sleep, he whispered to me the lyrics of a song that showed exactly how both of us felt at that moment.

The night has come  
Cuddle up to me  
Keep warm  
Mmm close to me  
  
In dreams  
We'll dream  
Making love to wake  
To find  
Mmm we're still one  
  
Your love  
Your love  
Your love  
Your love for me  
Is so   
Warm and good to me   
Growing every day   
Honey   
Honey   
I'm in love   
  
Ooooo   
  
I know a man   
Who's so in love   
Mm mm   
  
The night   
Has come   
Cuddle up   
To me   
Keep warm   
Mm close to me   
  
Your love   
Your love   
Your love   
Your love for me   
Is so warm and good to me   
Growing every day   
Honey   
Honey   
I'm in love   
  
Ooooo oooo oooooooo   
  
I know a man   
Who's so in love   
Mm mm


	9. Chapter 8

  **Elysa’s POV**

I rubbed my eyes, which were quite groggy, after only sleeping for such a short amount of time in the car. As he sat down beside me in the bed he pulled out his phone I couldn’t help but look at what he was doing. I smiled when I saw that Liam was texting Niall goodnight.

As he put his phone down, I got more comfortable and my head found a warm spot on his chest to rest on. The blankets were warm and cozy, but unlike mine at home, they smelled like Liam. They had a mix of his natural sent and his British brand detergent that made me smile.

“Liam…” I spoke softly.

He looked into my eyes with such compassion it made me blush, which in turn made him chuckle a bit.

“Can I tell you something?”

“Of course Elysa,” he looked at me a bit surprised, probably wondering what I had to tell him that I hadn’t told him before in one way or another. His eyes were so caring and sincere the way he looked at me.

With a deep breath, I looked into his puppy dog face and let it all out. He held me in his arms for hours as I told him everything that was on my mind. How I missed my brother, how I missed my home, how I was scared of what the media would say about me. We lay there for what seemed like forever. It was amazing.

I fell asleep in his arms that night, feeling so warm, so safe. It was even more amazing than the night at the hotel.

I somehow became shaken awake, aware of how sweaty and clammy I was. I took a deep breath as I became aware of my surroundings first thing in the morning. The sun was shining through the shutters covering the window, the walls were beige, and the sheets still smelled like Liam. I stretched my face a bit as I noticed that his arms were still around me and we were spooning. It felt so good to have someone’s arms around me, protecting me and keeping me safe.

I really wanted to get up and splash some water on my face, but I didn’t want to leave the confines of Liam’s arms and warm body. I was nearly torturing myself, but I had to remember at that moment, we were technically still just friends.

With an internal groan, I carefully slid out of the bed, careful not to wake up Liam beside me. I walked over to the bathroom and splashed some water on my face. I borrowed his hair brush and collected my hair into a pony tail at the top of my head. I looked at myself in the mirror and tried to imagine what Liam might possibly see in me, but I couldn’t find anything. I was nothing special, and he was more than special.

I sighed and looked down, seeing that I had accidentally left my clothes on the floor when I changed the night before. I was slightly embarrassed as I imagined he must have gotten up at some point in the night. I knew I was right when I noticed the toilet seat had been left up, and I giggled to myself.

That was when I noticed Liam in the doorway. He was just sort of looking at me. It was a mixture of sweet and creepy, but either way it made me feel very self aware.

“Good morning love, how’d you sleep?” he asked me very sweetly.

I smiled shyly, “With my eyes closed,” I joked. He laughed even though it was a horrible joke that most people had stopped laughing at years ago. Then he came towards me for a hug and pecked my forehead, which in turn made me blush.

**Liam’s POV**

Even when she blushed, she looked amazing. Elysa was so beautiful and she truly had no idea. She wasn’t one of those girls who said she was ugly just for compliments; she didn’t even say she was ugly. She just didn’t see what I saw.

I kissed her on the forehead before whispering, “I wish you didn’t leave this morning, babe.”

I backed out of our embrace and saw her continuing to blush. She looked so cute when she blushed, it always reminded me that she was younger and I could show her the ropes of life in some ways. I wanted to be the one to show her all things sexual, I just hoped that she would one day let me.

I decided it was time for breakfast, so I took her by the hand and led her into the kitchen with me. We searched the cabinets and found just enough pancake mix for the two of us, so I got to work.

She sat down about ten feet away and played with her hair. Her hair was so beautiful. Its dirty blonde color, its softness, and it was so long too. It reached to almost the bottom of her rib cage in the back and just below her breasts in the front. I loved it and I wanted to get my hands lost in it while my lips got lost in hers. I couldn’t help but admire the way it framed her face in the morning, it was perfect, and I knew that she loved it too.

I saw her move suddenly as she got up and went back to the bedroom. She returned a moment later with her phone out texting someone intently and laughing. It felt good to know she had the friends she could talk to while she was here. I figured it was one of the boys. I kept a smile plastered on my face as I finished up cooking the pancakes.

Just as I was putting our breakfast on the table, Harry barged through the doors. It was a normal occurrence to see him early in the morning like this, especially since he was not a very good cook. I got up and gave him a hug anyway, telling him good morning.

“Are you doing better?” Harry asked Elysa. I had never heard him put words together so quickly in my life.

“I think I’ll be fine,” she assured him. I saw Harry get up and take a deep breath before picking up and pancake with his hands and walking over to me. He tried to engage me in conversation, asking how I was doing and what Elysa and I truly were, but not only did I not know the answer to those questions, I didn’t want to at that moment.

Harry and I sat down at the table again after a moment and the three of us helped ourselves to breakfast. I was an excellent cook that morning if I do say so myself. We sat there together, laughing and telling stories to get our mind off of the issue at hand. But there was no way to completely avoid it.

As we finished eating, Kelly knocked on my door. I got up and let her in, nervous for what sort of message she might be bringing this morning.

“Paul sent me this morning,” she said with a very monotone voice while looking directly at her clipboard. I could tell she wasn’t actually reading anything, just trying to look more official than she was, being that she was only a few years older than the lads and I. “He wants to know what managements should say when asked about Liam and Elysa.”

The room went dead silent. None of us truly knew what to answer. But after a moment, I took a deep breath and stood up. I walked over to Elysa and put my hands on her shoulders and turned my attention to Kelly.

“Well,” I started, “I would like to tell them that I’m taken, but it’s really up to Elysa…” I got really nervous as every possibility of her next words ran through my mind. Harry was frozen in his seat, not expecting those words to come out of my mouth.

I looked down at Elysa after what seemed like hours of waiting for a response. Finally she spoke up softly, turning her head to look at me.

“I would really like that,” she finally said.

I was so elated. She jumped up and hugged me so tightly as I noticed Harry’s face slowly turning into a smile. I could not have asked for a better morning.

I gave Harry and Kelly a look and they both understood as they left my flat. Harry hugged Elysa on his way out and it was sweet to see her getting close with the other lads, I didn’t want her to feel alone while she was here.

Once it was just Elysa and I, I began to celebrate with her. We smiled and she giggled and I brought her onto the couch with me. I tickled her and she begged for me to stop, so when I did I kissed her hard but sweet. To my surprise, she didn’t pull away, or even blush. She and I simply enjoyed the feeling of closeness to one another. It took everything in me not to rip her clothes off right in that moment. Somehow I was able to keep my self control.

Everything was perfect; this was exactly what I had always wanted. A beautiful girl in my arms smiling who I loved more than I ever thought possible. I was officially part of her life, and she was a part of mine.

Her laughs started to die down, and I could tell she was thinking about something.

“What is it, love?” I asked her softly. I watched as the gears worked in her mind, eager to find out what would come out of them.

“I just…I feel really great right now. I don’t remember the last time I felt this great, or this wanted.” She smiled as she looked to me.

“You feel wanted babe? Good, I’m glad; because I have never wanted anything else in the world more than I want you right now.” I held her close to me and after a moment I started to sing softly so only she could hear me.

You know I'd fall apart without you   
I don't know how you do what you do   
'Cause everything that don't make sense about me   
Makes sense when I'm with you   
Like everything that's green, girl I need you   
But it's more than one and one makes two   
Put aside the math and the logic of it   
You gotta know you want it too   
  
'Cause I wanna wrap you up   
Wanna kiss your lips   
I wanna make you feel wanted   
And I wanna call you mine   
Wanna hold your hand forever   
Never let you forget it   
Yeah, I wanna make you feel wanted   
  
Anyone can tell you you're pretty   
(Yeah)   
You get that all the time, I know you do   
But your beauty's deeper than the makeup   
And I wanna show you what I see tonight   
  
When I wrap you up   
When I kiss your lips   
I wanna make you feel wanted   
And I wanna call you mine   
Wanna hold your hand forever   
Never let you forget it   
'Cause baby I wanna make you feel wanted   
  
As good as you make me feel   
I wanna make you feel better   
Better than your fairy tales   
Better than your best dreams   
You're more than everything I need   
You're all I ever wanted   
All I ever wanted   
  
And I just wanna wrap you up   
Wanna kiss your lips   
I wanna make you feel wanted   
And I wanna call you mine   
Wanna hold your hand forever   
Never let you forget it   
Yeah, I wanna make you feel wanted   
Yeah, baby I wanna make you feel -   
Wanted   
'Cause you'll always be wanted

When I finished singing, Elysa sighed, laying her head back on my shoulders. I could tell from her body that she was relaxed and comfortable…and happy. I thought back to what she had told me back at the hotel that night and I only felt more amazing about how I was able to make her feel.

I kissed her softly on her neck and I noticed goose bumps arise all over her skin. I smiled to myself that I was able to do that as well.

Soon we were back in the big black car again, but this time was different than last time. Last time I was crying and this time I couldn’t be happier. Elysa’s hand never lost contact with my own, and the other boys didn’t dare poke fun. It felt so amazing to know that she felt the same way about me that I felt about her.

I was a bit nervous though. We were on our way to a pretty big interview, and I knew the fans would find out about Elysa while we were in there. I was afraid they wouldn’t like her, or would poke a joke at something innocent that might not realize is actually a huge trigger for Elysa.

“When we get out of the car, just keep your head down and down don’t let go of my hand. I’m not going to stop to sign anything, we’re just going to go straight in,” I warned her. “And it’s going to be extremely loud,” I added last minute.

**Elysa’s POV**

Liam kissed my forehead as the car slowed to a stop in front of a building. There were screaming fans everywhere. It was strange. I had never been to something like that, even as a normal fan I never went anywhere to scream in the boys’ faces. And now I was there as Liam’s girlfriend, except none of them really knew that yet.

The doors of the car opened and Harry and Louis jumped out. Zayn lifted himself and rubbed his eyes as he yanked out Niall. Liam took a deep breath and squeezed my hand tight. I was scared and grabbed onto him tightly as we shuffled out of the small car.

The noise was insane. I was not prepared for something like this. Liam led me through the crowd with Harry and Louis in front of us and Zayn and Niall behind us, keeping the fans and paparazzi from getting at me. They were screaming loudly and asking so many questions. Their hands were trying to grab at the boys and in turn me, and I was scared that one of them might be trying to hurt me.

We finally made it inside and I took in huge breath of air. It felt nice to breathe in without the fear of taking people in with that air. I realized the look on my face would have been hilarious to anyone else when I passed by I reflective surface. I turned around and saw that Harry and Louis were indeed laughing at me, and I gave them an icky face complete with a stuck out tongue.

                “You ok love” Liam asked me as we walked down the hall. The craziness was far from over as countless special paparazzi were still taking our pictures, not to mention asking who I was. I nodded my head in response, assuring him everything was ok despite how terrified I was on the inside.

                “You’ll get used to Ely.”

                No one had ever called me Ely before, but I kind of liked it, so I didn’t stop him.

                Paul led our group to a small green room. Liam and I sat down on a couch together while the rest of the boys sprawled out on some chairs in the room. He kissed my forehead and I blushed. Although there was no media in the room at the time, there was a whole crew of people, and I wasn’t used to this type of affection from anyone, let alone a _boyfriend._

                “I really liked it when you called me ‘Ely,’” I told him softly.

                Liam smiled at me, “Good, me too.” I couldn’t help but giggle.

                I looked around the room and saw all of the boys on their phones. They really were normal teenagers like me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out my own, surprised to see a new message from my brother.

                _Did you get to London? You never called_

                I had totally forgotten to call him when my plane landed. It must have completely slipped my mind while I was concerned with Liam. I smiled as I tapped out my message.

                _Yes, sorry, must have forgotten to call. With Liam at an interview._  I held my breath, making sure Liam wasn’t looking over my shoulder as I added in the last part. _I think he’s about to make it official._

                I smiled and looked at my message as I pressed send. Liam looked over at me, noticing my smirk and kissed me quickly on the lips.

                “Who was that?”

                “Just Sam,” I told him.

                “Good, no one trying to steal you from me.” I giggled and let my head rest on his shoulder. I would have loved to kiss him right then, but I was still insecure about kissing, and I didn’t want Liam to say anything in front of the other boys.

                Paul walked in with a clipboard, never looking completely up from it. “Alright boys, radio interview first, and then a magazine interview. Should last about an hour.” He walked out of the room just as abruptly as he walked in.

                I looked over at Liam questioningly, not exactly sure what this meant. He kissed me on the forehead again. “I’ll only be a text message away love,” and he walked out of the room. I knew it wasn’t that big of a deal, but I really did want to hear exactly what he was going to say when they asked if he was single or not.

                I sat in the room mostly alone for what seemed like forever. I pulled out my phone and texted Zach back home. I missed him a lot and I hadn’t gone into detail about what I was doing this week. I explained to him what happened this morning and what was about to happen on the radio, but he didn’t respond.

                Finally I got a new text, it was from Sam.

                _I just heard him on the radio. Congrats kid. Don’t go too crazy._

                I had such a mix of emotions at that moment. I was happy, excited, scared, nervous, embarrassed. Liam had officially announced that we were together. This was it, there was no going back now.

                Just then the boys walked together through the door. Liam’s eyes caught mine immediately. He made his way painfully slowly to the couch I was sitting on. I was finally able to get up and give him the hug I wanted to.

                I backed up a bit and looked into his eyes. “My brother heard your interview.” He looked worried at first, but then I showed him the text and he smiled.

                Without any other warning, he went in for a kiss. This time, I was more confident with it. I smiled into his lips as he took the next step and his tongue entered my mouth. The kiss only lasted for a moment though, as Paul cleared his throat and Harry laughed.

                 I sat back down on the couch, blushing, embarrassed. But Liam’s arm was around me, so I knew everything would be ok. We sat together on the couch for a moment; me cuddled up next to him. I could tell that we both had huge smiles on our faces. Liam made me so beyond happy.

                “What did they ask? And what did you say exactly?” I finally spoke up as everyone began focusing on their own things.

                “Well she asked if we were single, and everyone else answered first. Then everyone looked at me curiously. You know Harry heard this morning but none of the other lads did. And then I told them ‘I am happily taken by a beautiful girl. Her name is Elysa.’” He told me softly as his hand rubbed up and down my arm.

                Soon Paul came back into the room, barking orders to move the boys on to their next interview. Liam kissed my forehead sweetly. I could tell that he didn’t want to leave, but there was no way I could go with him. I never wanted to be away from him. Somehow, a simple label had made us even closer.

                My hands slipped out from Liam’s as he walked away. I took another deep breath. Is this what it is going ot be like? See him for a few minutes, then he leaves again? would there be any consistency? I closed my eyes for a moment, trying to take the pain away from him leaving after such a wonderful moment.

                I hadn’t even noticed Kelly walk back into the room. She came and sat down next to me on the couch and assured me that everything would be ok. But what was I getting myself into?

                I pulled my phone out of my pocket; I had been feeling its vibrations almost constantly since the text from my brother. As I slid it open, I was not surprised by my messages. Scrolling through the names and unknown numbers I became skeptical of who was actually happy for me and who thought they had a chance of hopping on the fame wagon.

                There was a text from Sage, telling me how excited she was for me. I deleted it right away. I never wanted anything to do with her. I did the same to texts from all the unknown numbers. Eventually, I was left with only one text; from Zach.

                _I heard the news. Congrats E! Just don’t forget about us little people, ok?_

                I smiled as I read it. I missed him so much. I knew it was going to be tough on him with me having a boyfriend since I have never had one before.

                Kelly and I started talking and soon I realized that we weren’t that far apart in age. She was just two years older than Sam, and it felt a little bit like having an older sister. I began to open up to her without even realizing it.

                “I don’t know,” I started to say, “before Liam, I had never actually kissed anyone before.” I paused to see her reaction. I was expecting judgment but her face stayed friendly as I continued. “I’m just a little scared that he’s going to get bored of teaching me how to do these things and that he’ll want someone more experienced that can really give him what he wants.”

                My phone went off again, and I picked it up. The text from Louis.

                _Hey Elysa. I just wanted to let you know that no matter what the fans might say to you in the next few weeks, you are a brilliant girl. Not only are you truly special, but I have never seen Liam care about someone the way he cares about you. Don’t let anything that anyone says get to you. If you need help along the way, with anything at all, don’t forget that I'm here. I already consider you one of my best mates, and I want to make sure that we can keep it that way._

                I could not wipe the smile off of my face. The boys truly did care about me. I just wanted to be best friends with each of them. I texted Louis back swiftly.

                _Thank you Louis. You are so great._

                It was nice to have someone to talk to. I had actually had two people to talk to. Between the conversation with Louis at Nando’s and this text just now, I knew I could talk to him about anything. I also felt much closer to Kelly. But the only person I really wanted to talk to was Liam.

**Text Log**

**Elysa:** How’s the interview going?

 **Liam:** It’s ok, same questions as always. I miss you babe x

 **Elysa:** Give them different answers and see if they notice! I miss you too

 **Liam:** That would be way too mean! What have you been up to?

 **Elysa:** Not much, just texting my friend and talking to Kelly

 **Liam:** Talk about anything special?

 **Elysa:** kind of

 **Liam:** like what?

 **Elysa:** Girl talk.

 **Liam:** haha, don’t tell her too much x

 **Elysa:** Not that I really have much to say

 **Liam:** is that my fault?

 **Elysa:** no

 **Liam:** are you sure?

 **Elysa:** Yes. Its just. You know I've never been with anyone before.

 **Liam:** I know.

 **Elysa:** it doesn’t bother you though, does it?

 **Liam:** not at all. Everything about you is perfect, and if no one before me could see that, then it’s their fault, not yours. I just hope I never pressure you into something further than you are willing to go.

 **Elysa:** you never have. Actually…well never mind.

 **Liam:** actually what?

 **Elysa:** well I’d kind of like to know what it’s like to go a little bit further.  I mean, you are my boyfriend now(:

 **Liam:** do you think you are ready for that babe?

 **Elysa:** I didn’t mean…all the way. Just a little bit further.

 **Liam:** Only if you are sure you are ready for that step love

 **Elysa:** I’m sure. You have some experience with this anyway, so I trust that you know what you’re doing.

 **Liam:** You make that sound like a bad thing. And the previous experiences mean nothing. Anything that happens, or has happened, it completely about you and me, and no one else.

 **Elysa:** No one else?

 **Liam:** absolutely no one else. This is about you and me, and our relationship, no one else.

**Liam’s POV**

                My interview was over, but I lagged a bit in the room with the lads. Zayn and Louis walked out pretty quickly, but Niall and Harry must have noticed my intent stare on my phone. I was waiting to see if Elysa wouls say anything, I was trying to figure out what exactly she meant by…well…everything she had said to me.

                “Everything ok mate?” Harry asked me. It was clear that he cared about whatever was going on. He cared not only about me, but about Elysa too. But for some reason, I didn’t want to speak him to about this. He was too cheeky, he would probably make some remark that he would regret.

                “Yeah, everything’s fine.”

I plastered a bit of a fake smile as he walked out of the room. When I was sure he was out of earshot, I turned to Niall who was still looking at me concerned.\

“It’s not….bad,” I tried to convince him. He clearly didn’t believe me though. “She just told me…well…she told me…here, look.”  I handed him my phone and watched nervously as he read the conversation. I was fairly sure he knew that Elysa had never been with anyone before, I mean it was in her letter, so it wasn’t like any huge secrets were coming out.

Niall finished reading the conversation and handed the phone back to me with a smile. No words, just a smile. He patted my back and walked out of the room in silence. I had no idea what this was supposed to mean.

I followed in the other lad’s footsteps and left the interview room. I knew Elysa felt awkward about most things, so I was just hoping she would be ok. As I walked into the room she was waiting in, I caught her smile. It was huge and contagious. I walked up and held her hand, giving her a small kiss on her forehead.

“Can we talk more later…about…ya know?” She whispered into my ears. I nodded to say yes as we made our way out of the building.

I felt her take a deep breath and I saw from her face that she was content. But I was anxious about what the fans reaction would be when we left the building. I learned that anxiety had its rightful place in my mind as we walked into the lobby of the building and ear drums nearly shattered. The screaming was even more intense than before. The lads helped me shuffle Elysa into the car with minimal contact from the fans outside.

                When we got back to my flat after the interview, Elysa looked wiped out. It was well past what should have been lunch time, but she didn’t seem to care. As soon as we got home Elysa walked into the bedroom, took off her bra, and crashed on the bed. The sleep was definitely needed.

                She woke up a few hours later. I was sitting on the bed beside her reading an email. She slowly shifted her body and I noticed that she was awake. I swiftly kissed her cheek, and saw her blush, but the blush was much less than usual.

                “Liam…can we talk about…what we were talking about?” she asked me shyly. I simply nodded and she took a deep breath before continuing. “So my birthday is on Thursday…” she trailed off as if not exactly sure where she was going with the conversation.

                I let out a small smile. “Whatever you want babe, I just want you to be happy and comfortable.”I paused for a moment before continuing. “But you have to know that the thought of you in pleasure drives me wild.” she giggled and blush way more than before. 

                She seemed more relaxed now that she had gotten that off of her chest. It felt good to know that she wanted these things.

                “Babe, I’m going to go take a shower,” I kissed her sweetly before proceeding to the bathroom.

                I walked into the smallish room and closed and locked the door. I almost never used the lock, but I figured I should. I went to the shower and turned on the water to a good heat and stepped back to let the water warm up.  Slowly, I took off my shirt, then my shorts, then my boxers, and I looked in the mirror.

                What I saw was nothing special. I knew that thousands of girls out there loved my body, but I just couldn’t see it exactly the way that they could. I saw where my muscles could be bigger, where everything could be bigger. But I knew thinking that way wouldn’t be worth it.

                I shook these thoughts from my mind and walked back to the shower. I put my hand in and felt the perfect warmth of the water, so I stepped in. I leaned my head back, allowing for the water to flow through my hair. I turned and looked at the array of soaps and shampoos that had made their way in there, but instead I decided to pass.

                I looked down and saw that my length was in fact almost at its full length without any touch from me or Elysa. I took a deep breath and leaning against the shower wall, I took it in my hand and began to stroke. I smiled as I thought about Elysa doing this for me one day, when she was ready of course. I got harder at the thought of me being able to pleasure her, hear her sounds, maybe even taste her one day. A giant smile appeared on my face.

                I kept rubbing and stroking myself until i was almost at my peak. I could feel it coming. I had to bite my lip to keep from making noise. I didn’t want Elysa to hear me. But when I finally got there, I couldn’t help it. I let out one big moan as I released in the shower.

                I panted, my hand still in place, as I came down from the high that I had given myself. I slowly began to catch my breath. But then I heard Elysa’s voice from outside the door.

                “Liam, are you alright?”

                “Yeah, I’ll be out in a minute babe,” I assured her. I quickly used the shower water to clean up my mess so she wouldn’t have a clue. I poured a bit of conditioner into my hands and quickly spread it through my hair so it would smell as if I had actually showered.

 

 

 

 


	10. Chapter 9

**Liam’s POV**

                Ely had gone with the boys and me to one of our radio interviews and we were on the way back to the flats. She was sitting in the center seat between me and Niall, my arm around her and her head was resting on my shoulder, just relaxing.

                I looked across from me and saw Harry looking at me while also seeming deep in thought. The other boys seemed to notice at the same moment.

                “Use your words, Harold,” I mocked.

                “It’s your birthday on Thursday, that’s two days away!” He finally shouted. “We have to throw you a HUGE party!” She laughed. I knew that she hadn’t had the time or money for a real birthday party in years. “But I bet Liam has a special present for you…” he winked.

                “Or we could all get lunch together?” she suggested.

                My face must have lit up as the gears in mind went to work. 

                “Why don’t we have all the lads stay over tonight. We can celebrate a bit early and then throw a fancy party later,” I suggested. It was actually a great suggestion, and everyone agreed.

                When we got home, I took a shower and Ely worked on picking out an outfit for the night. When I walked out of the bathroom with just a towel around my lower half, I saw Ely standing with her dress in only her underwear and bra. I was reminded of when this happened by accident back at the hotel after the surprise show, but this time I didn’t feel nearly as guilty.

                Elysa’s beauty was radiating off of her. I could tell her confidence had soared to a new high. I slowly stepped forward, taking her beautiful face in my hands. I turned her so that I could look into her eyes. They sparkled in response to the setting sun in the window. I wanted nothing more than to take her entire body under my command, allowing her to feel more pleasure than ever before, right then and there. But I knew I couldn’t do that, I respected her way too much.

                Instead, I leaned forward, crashing my lips down to hers. I put all of my passion into that moment, smiling as I remembered that as of just a few days ago, she was mine. She began to giggle again and pulled back.

                “Hey, I wasn’t done yet!” I whined to Ely. She giggled some more and gave me a quick peck on the lips before slipping her floral sundress over her head and leaving the room.

                I watched her every step, admiring how the dress showed off her curves perfectly. She wasn’t the skinniest girl, but she was the most beautiful girl I had ever laid my eyes on. Everything about her body was absolutely perfect.

**Elysa’s POV**

                I skipped to the door as I heard a knock, and when I saw it was Niall and Louis, I let them in. they both gave me a giant hug and wished me an early happy birthday. I politely smiled and walked to the other side of the room. I sat down with my back leaning against the wall, letting my dress flow at my legs, and invited the two to join me.

                We sat and talked for a while. I loved these boys. They were really my best friends, other than Zach, and I felt like I could tell them almost anything. Although there was no way I was planning on talking to them about my plans to go a little further with Liam soon I told them about how I wasn’t scared when he kissed me anymore.

                Our sharing and laughter hit a bit of a pause when he heard another knock on the door. I got up to let Harry in, and I received yet another giant hug. We sat back down on the ground with the other boys and kept talking. It was mostly small talk, a typical polite conversation.

                Then, harry decided to change things up abruptly. “So, have you two gone at it in bed yet?” I blushed pretty badly. “Is that a yes or a no?” he begged for an answer.

                I nuzzled my head into Niall’s shoulder, I was so embarrassed. He got the message and spoke up, answering the question for me.

                “I’m gonna take that as a no, mate. After all, she’s only 17…well she will be in two days.

                I lifted my head up to see Louis whispering something into Harry’s ear. I rolled my eyes at the two of them, then looked up to Niall to thank him silently for answering for me. Luckily there was a knock on the door to break up the awkwardness of the conversation. I got up to let Zayn in, receive my final hug, and shout across the apartment to Liam.

                He walked out towards us, looking amazing as always in tightly fitting jeans and v-neck T shirt. “So I was thinking of ordering pizza and watching a movie?” We all agreed that it would be a good way to just hang out and bond during the night, so Liam went ahead and ordered the pizza.

                “The movies are over here Elysa,” Harry led me to Liam’s movie collection near the large TV that Liam still insisted was nothing. I couldn’t help but laugh at his collection simply because there were so many different kinds of movies. There were scary movies, girly movie, and comedic movies which I figured would be perfect for tonight.

                “Wait, wait, wait!” Liam shouted from across the rom. “I thought we could watch The Sandlot since it’s your favorite.” I laughed, I knew every word to that movie. He set up the movie in the player and a huge booming noise came over the surround sound speakers.

                The pizza arrived just as the movie was about to begin. We all got onto the couch, cuddling together under blankets. The boys were kind enough to Liam a space next to me. He brought the pizza over to a small coffee table between the couch and TV, and we each grabbed a hot, cheesy slice.

                “What’s this movie about anyway?” Louis asked me, his mouth full of food. The boys all turned to me, even Liam didn’t really have a clue.

                “Well it’s about this boy that moves into a new neighborhood and all the kids there play baseball in this sandlot. And he has a step dad that he doesn’t really like and he doesn’t really know anything about baseball. Next door to the sandlot is a crazy old man with a dog.”

                They didn’t really seem to get it, but I promised them that sitting here and watching would be worth it. I was cuddled into Liam’s chest for most of the movie. The blanket covered us and Niall as Liam wrapped his arms around me beneath the blanket.

                After a while of laying there with Liam, I could feel something hardening beneath me. It took me a moment to figure out what it was, but once I did, I turned back up to look at him. He gave me a questioning look, as if to ask if I was ready. I responded by patting his face lightly and turning back the other way to let him know that the answer was still no.

                The six of us sat there for the duration of the movie. When it ended I proudly asked the boys, “So was I right…or was I right?” the silence afterwards showed me that once again, I was the only person in the world that loved this movie so much.

                “So now what?” Niall asked. For a moment, no one answered him until mischievous Louis came up with the idea to play truth or dare.

                “Come on Tomlinson, we aren’t in middle school anymore!” Zayn teased him.

                “No, I think it’ll be fun!” I said. I hadn’t played truth or dare with a group of people that I actually trusted before, so I thought it would be fun.

                We all readjusted onto the floor in a circle and decided on a few simple rules. Someone would volunteer to go first, then after them we would go in a circle to the right. The first time you could chose either, but each turn after would be alternating truth or dare, that way it wouldn’t get boring.

                Louis volunteered to go first and chose dare. The five of us sat there for a moment, thinking of the best dares we could come up with. The dares for the boys were pretty easy to think of, and it was really fun.

                When we got to my first turn, I chose truth, hoping it would be safe. But Harry, being the cheeky guy he is, asked me how big my boobs were. I turned to Liam and he could see I was a bit uncomfortable, but I could also see that he was curious, so I shyly answered.

                “I um…really big?” I joked, unsure of how else to answer. “I mean like, bigger than a double D the names kinda change depending on the brand. I guess you could say I’m a four D? But I don’t really like to talk about it…”I trailed off. I noticed all of the boys had wide eyes.

                The first few rounds went off from there. It basically became strip this or strip that. By the time we got around to my third dare, we were pretty much all in our underwear. Liam was sitting next to me, his hand around my waist. He wouldn’t make eye contact with me anymore, or even look in my general direction, for fear of his bulge growing for everyone to see.

                “Elysa…I dare you…” Louis thought for a long time about this one. I could see the gears working in his brain as he tried to come up with the most mischievous dare yet. He made awkward eye contact with Harry, as if using telepathy to ask if his dare was a good idea. “I dare you to give Liam and hand job in the other room.”

                I froze. I hadn’t talked to any of them about how I wanted to go further. But even though I really wanted to, I didn’t want to do it right now. I wanted to do it on my own terms when I was ready and when Liam and I both wanted to do it.

                I looked up at Liam’s face, my own clearly reflecting worry. He looked down at me and understood. “I think it’s time to go to bed…”

                The boys all groaned as we stood up and I silently thanked Liam for saving me from something I was not ready for.

                “Fine, fine, fine, but it’s gotta happen at some point Elysa,” Louis lectured me. I rolled my eyes jokingly as I headed to the bedroom to change.

                Liam followed me to grab his clothes. They were going to give me some privacy, but the plan was to all cuddle together in the bed if there was enough room. We walked down the hall silently, but the second we got into the room, Liam closed the door.

                “Don’t let the lads pressure you into anything Ely. I’m serious, it’s all about you. I won’t push you further than you want to go, ever.”

                I smiled up at him, thankfully, and gave him a giant hug, burying my head into his chest. This was the boy I had fallen for. He respected me so much, cared about so much, no one had ever treated me this way before and it was such an amazing feeling.

                He kissed the top of my head before grabbing his clothes and walking through the door, changing in the other room with the boys while I changed in here. I took a deep breath. I might have my doubts sometimes, but it was moments like this one that I knew I was doing the right thing.

                I put on my favorite pair of sweats and my brother’s over-sized shirt wanting to feel comfy as well as have a reason to tell the boys that it would be weird to do anything with Liam. I mean, I was in my brother’s shirt. They would have to stop making fun of me.

                I put my hair in a loose ponytail and took a deep breath as I opened the door and called the boys in. Liam had told me that they were all really great cuddlers and I was looking forward to testing that assumed fact.

                We started to arrange ourselves in the bed meant for two, filling it with six bodies. I sat down in the very middle, telling everyone I wanted to be the center of attention on my birthday, which made them all laugh. Liam took my right side, Niall my left. Harry was next to Niall and Louis and Zayn squished on the other side of Liam.

                We got under the blankets and got comfortable. Instead of being all over Liam, I initially cuddled with Niall. I laid my head on his chest and listened to his heart beat as the six of us had soft conversations. Eventually, Liam, Zayn and Louis had fallen asleep. I talked with Niall and Harry for a bit as I felt my eye lids getting heavier and heavier.

                “What would you be doing back in America?” Harry asked me at one point.

                There was a silence as I tried to gather my thoughts, unsure of exactly how to answer the question. Then finally I began. “I would be in bed a lot, and I would be with Zach, and I would be with Sam, and that’s about it. I wasn’t even going to have a party for my birthday,” I told them.

                After that, we were quiet. Harry’s breathing slowed and I heard it start to match up with the other sleeping boys. I could tell by Niall’s deeper, slower breathing and heartbeat that he too would be asleep soon. I moved my head at an angle to see his face, eyes closed at that moment.

                “Goodnight, Niall,” I whispered with a smile.

                “Goodnight, Elysa,” he whispered back. And with that, I rolled over to find my comfy spot on Liam’s chest, and slowly drifted to sleep. 


	11. Chapter 10

**Elysa’s POV**

When we woke up in the morning, all six of our bodies were strewn over each other. Zayn had somehow fallen onto the floor. I was the first to wake up and I immediately turn my body just enough to admire Liam. He always looked so amazing while he was sleeping. But I think he felt my movements as his eyes soon fluttered open.

                “Good morning, love,” he whispered before kissing my forehead lightly. I gave him a bit of a hum and dug my head back into the comfortable spot it was in a moment earlier.

                Eventually all of the boys woke up and with groggy morning voices, left the apartment. I could tell they were all just about to fall asleep again in their own beds by themselves. Liam and I both tried to go back to sleep, but where he succeeded, I failed miserably.

                Instead I walked into the living room and sat on the couch, channel surfing for a show that I might have heard of. I landed on a children’s cartoon that vaguely resembled something I used to watch. I was fully entranced by the British accents of all of the characters when Liam sat down beside me.

                “I have an idea of something we could watch…”

                He picked up the remote from beside me and promptly changed the setting so that a radio station was playing from the speakers of the TV.

                “But now we can’t watch anything…” I was confused where he was going with this.

                “We don’t need to baby, I just want to watch you.”

                I blushed, as always, trying to look away. But Liam wouldn’t have it as he took my face in his hand and turned it towards him. He began to kiss me and I misled into his lips, realizing how much more comfortable I had become with this action.

                Our tongues were soon intertwined and working together as calming music played in the background. I allowed Liam to explore my mouth with his tongue, and my body with his hands as I did the same to him.

                He started off just rubbing my back as I felt his muscles beneath his shirt. But soon it escalated more than ever before. He led my hands to underneath his shirt, as I kept feeling his amazing body. He lifted off his shirt while only barely losing contact with my lips.

                I pulled back for a moment just to marvel at Liam’s body. I had seen it before, but for some reason it seemed to be radiating today. I looked back into his eyes and smiled as his lips once again crashed down onto mine.

                I kept feeling his upper body through the kiss, getting accustomed to him, when suddenly, I pulled back. I realized that I was still wearing my brother’s shirt from last night.

                “We can just take that off…” he told me with a smirk.

                I blushed as he pulled from the bottom hem upwards, over my arms. I was wearing a sports bra from the night cuddling. Although this was not the first time I had been revealed like this to him, it was the first time it was ok purpose, and it felt ok.

                I looked back at Liam after he removed my shirt and began to kiss him sweetly again. My arms immediately wrapped around my stomach, trying to hide my body from him. But he pulled them away and kissed the backs of them before kissing my belly.

                “Stop, you’re beautiful Ely,” he whispered. I relaxed my arms back to my sides and kissed him again.

 He deepened the kiss as he pushed me backwards so I was lying on the couch, him somewhat on top of me. I knew where he was trying to go with, and I knew my own limits, so I let him continue.

                His big hands began rubbing my boobs through my sports bra. He tried to take it off, but I stopped him. He continued kissing me and moved one hand down to my hips where he rubbed small circles with his thumb, still not missing a beat on my chest. I could feel his length hardening against my legs, and I smiled into his lips a bit. He took this as a sign to go and started to slide my sweatpants down my body.

                He hooked his fingers into the waistband and lifted it a bit. He separated our lips for a moment to look into my eyes as if to ask if it was ok, and I nodded in approval. He moved his entire focus to removing my pants, excruciatingly slowly.

                Once my sweatpants were completely off, he through them on the floor with both of our shirts. He looked at me and smiled, kissing my lips sweetly as he let his hand travel down my body. His fingers reached my panties and he traced them along the lacy top.

                As if asking for permission once again, he broke our kiss and looked at me, and I again gave him a nod of approval with a little smile. My lower lip made its way between my teeth as I got nervous again for a moment. Liam noticed and moved his body up so that he was face to face with me. He kissed me sweetly, forcing my lip out of my mouth.

                “Relax love, it’s going to be ok, I promise. And I’ll stop whenever you want me to stop,” he whispered. I nodded my head again, and he went back to what he was doing a moment before.

                He slipped his hands beneath the fabric of my panties, without taking them off completely, and began getting himself accustomed to my body. Even just having his fingers there at all felt amazing to me. It only got better when he found my clit and starting rubbing it with small, slow circles.

                A small gasp escaped my lips and Liam smiled at me, kissing where the sound had come from. “Make all the noise you want baby,” he whispered.

                He continued rubbing my clit with his thumb as he let one of his other fingers tease me up and down my opening. I let out a small whimper, wanting him to get on with the job, the teasing was simply too much. He got the hint and slowly put one finger inside of me. I gasped a bit, not used to the feeling at all. Liam smiled as he began to pump his finger in and out very slowly. The feeling he gave me was amazing, and I was so comfortable with him.                

                He added another finger to pump in and out of me with the first one, while still continuing to rub circles around my clit with his thumb. I was in such a state of pleasure. Then his fingers hit a spot inside of me that made me go weak. He looked up at me, smiling, attaching his lips once again to mine. He was rather unsuccessful though, as my mouth was open, small moans and gasps escaping it.

                I soon felt my abdomen tighten. I must have been reaching my climax. I couldn’t even explain the feeling, it was more than I had ever experienced before.

                Liam removed his fingers from my panties and looked at me, lying there, panting and trying to catch my breath. A proud smile escaped his mouth. I giggled as he gave me a questioning look. I knew he wanted his turn, but I had to catch my breath first.

                Eventually, I leaned in a gave him a deep and passionate kiss as he began to lower his pants. “I don’t now how…” I started.

                “It’s ok,” he whispered as he took my hand in his.

                He led my hand to his bulge that was easy to see through his tight boxers. “Rub,” he whispered. I did as I was told, lightly rubbing the spot. I was intimidating to actually feel him in full, and I was worried that I was doing it wrong. But the look in his face told me otherwise.

                I looked at him questioningly. He smiled once more and took my hand in his, leading it to the waistband of his boxers. I slowly pulled them down, releasing his fully hardened cock. I kind of just stared at it for a moment, unsure of what to do.

                Liam saw the look on my face and chuckled. He must have been proud that he could bring that sort of intimidation to a girl, but he didn’t show his pride. He took my hand and placed it near the bottom of his shaft, his hand over mine. I grabbed lightly on it as he used his own arm to help me rub him up and down, slowly. After a moment, he let go, allowing me to continue without his help. I looked at him, worried I would still be doing something wrong, and again he smiled with encouragement.

                I knew I wanted him to feel the same pleasure that he had made me feel, so I tried my best, knowing he would correct me if something was wrong. I continued the rubbing pattern he had started, up and down, up and down, up and down. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back onto his shoulders. I was in full control now.

                I reached his swollen head and rubbed it with my thumb a bit, feeling the precum lubricate it. I was a little unsure of the stickiness, but I figured it would only help him to feel even more pleasure, so I continued. I picked up mu pace, going a bit faster. I could see his climax building, but I was unsure of what to do when it finally hit.

                “Get me that towel,” Liam was able to pant out between breaths. I hurried across the room and to get the towel for him as he continued my previous job. He must have known I didn’t know what to do. I handed him the towel and took over where his hand was, continuing my pace. Then finally, a huge moan escaped him as he released his fluids all over the towel.

                He sat there, panting, trying to catch his breath as I just marveled at the way he looked. He was fully exposed to me, and fully comfortable with it.

                As his breath came back to him, Liam looked at me and began to kiss me again. he once again pushed me over so I was lying down. This time, he kissed down my body. I was unsure of what he was planning on doing, so I let him continue. He reached the top of my panties and continued to leave wet kisses on my body. He looked up at me as he hooked his fingers in the waistband, mouth still just above it, asking for permission.

                It took me a moment to realize what he was trying to do, but the second that I figured it out, I shook my head no and panicked. I wasn’t ready for that, not yet at least.

                Liam saw the worried look on my face and came back up to kiss me sweetly. “It’s ok, I can wait.”

                I smiled, feeling confident that even in a state like this, Liam knew how to respect my boundaries. “Thank you,” I told him. He allowed me to sit up and I just sort of looked into his eyes for a moment before looking away, trying to help my full stream of consciousness come back to me.

                Liam reached down to grab his boxers and slid them back over his body, followed by his pants. He handed me my own sweatpants as he allowed me to covered myself back up.

                We sat there for a moment, now mostly clothes. I cuddled my head into his just like I normally did, but this time it was just on his skin. I smiled, but Liam had other things going through his head.

                “How will I know when you’re ready for more?” he asked. I could tell he wanted to go further, whatever the reason. I took a breath and thought for a moment.

                “When I feel ready, and when I don’t say no.”

                He kissed the top of my head and we sat there for a few minutes longer. “It’s not just because of your birthday,” he told me. “I wanted more because I want you more. I want to know more of your body, I was you to feel more pleasure.”

                I stayed silent for a moment more, unsure of what to say next. It finally came to my lips as I told him, “I’m just not ready yet.”

                He accepted that completely, kissing my forehead again. We sat together in silence because nothing needed to be said. We both knew how the other one felt and we were ok with that.

                He kissed my head again, suggesting to me sweetly that I should go take a shower to clean up. I obliged, and walked down the hall.


	12. Chapter 11

**Elysa’s POV**

Spring break had flown by. Living with Liam had been interesting ever since I let him go a little bit further. I could see by the look in his eyes when we had passionate moments that he wanted to do it again, and I would let him if the moment felt right. But since that day, we hadn’t done anything new. It wasn’t that I didn’t want it, in fact I had already made up my mind that I wanted to lose my virginity to Liam, it was just that I was scared and anxious and we had impeccably bad timing.

Still though, I felt safe with Liam. I knew if anything happened to me he would be there to stop it or fix it. He never undermined me or talked down to me either. After living so independently at home, I was used to my freedoms and my life being so incredibly separate from all those around me. And although we lived together, Liam still made sure I had that freedom.

Getting so close to all of the boys only made it more difficult to leave. After I had packed up all of my things and the boys had helped me load my bag into Liam’s car, we went back inside so I could say a proper goodbye to everyone.

I hugged each of the four boys separately, each of them making me cry harder than the last. I had never been much for emotions over such trivial things, but I just couldn’t seem to help it. These four boys had become best friends to me and I couldn’t deny that I would miss them. By now I had shared a pretty deep moment with each of them, whether it was on the couch at the concert with Niall, or in Nando’s with Louis.

I waved goodbye to them as Liam led me out the door of his apartment. He closed the door slowly behind us and used his hand placed in the small of my back to lead me towards the car. Carefully, he opened the door for me to get in on the passenger’s side, and after making sure I was in ok, he closed the door and made his way over to the other side.

We sat in silence for a while, not sure what to do. Neither of us wanted to go, but we both knew that it was the inevitable. I had put on my flowery dress again, hoping that it would cheer me up enough to distract me from what was happening, so when Liam places his hand on my thigh, it was direction skin on skin contact. I sighed at the feeling and flashed back to the moments when other skin on skin contact was so extremely exhilarating. I turned to look Liam in the eyes and he looked away quickly, probably thinking about the same things.

“Let’s go then,” he sighed.

Without moving his one hand from my thigh, he used the other to drive the car towards the airport. We drove in silence and for the first time that silence was actually uncomfortable. Neither of us wanted to go, but we both knew we had to.

Just as Liam parked his car at the airport, a country song came on that made us look deeply into each other’s eyes. Mine immediately started watering, and Liam’s quickly followed.

_Take off your leaving dress_

_Let’s do what we do best…_

I forced myself to get out of the car and I walked towards the trunk where my bag was. Liam hadn’t turned it off yet, so the song was still playing as I grabbed my bags. It was as if the universe was telling us that I needed to stay, but we both knew that I couldn’t.

He finally turned the key and pulled it out of the ignition, leaving an eerie silence in its place. Liam met me around the back of the car and pulled me into a tight embrace. It felt as if he would never let me go, and I never wanted him to. He kissed my forehead sweetly just before releasing me and he sighed.

I took his hand in mine and we slowly started walking towards the terminal. As we had expected, there were a lot of girls here screaming for Liam. We both ignored them and all of their requests for autographs; I'm sure they understood. Liam helped me check in and then walked with me as far as he could until we got to security.

“I guess this is it,” I mumbled softly, using my hands to motion to nothing in particular.

“No it’s not,” he shook his head. “This is just the beginning. I promise Ely.” He squeezed his eyes as if to make the whole scene go away, but it still remained when they opened back up. He took another step towards me and hugged me once again, even tighter and filled with even more love than the last time.

It was that moment that I felt my body really start to shake. I could feel my tears rushing out of my eyes and down my face, only to be soaked up by Liam’s shirt. Neither of us said a word for a good couple of moments, as we were both afraid of what was happening and unsure of what to say.

“Take off your leaving dress, let’s do what we do best…” he mumbled softly into my hair. I started to cry even harder and I actually backed away just enough to be able to look him in the eyes.

“I can’t Liam. I have to go back to California; to Sam and Zach and to school. You know that.” I continued to weep, not even fully trusting my own words.

At first I didn’t notice his slight movements, but I caught on quickly enough as his hands moved to cup my face. He brought our lips closer together, ever so slowly, before wiping away my last tears with his thumbs. Our lips finally connected and it was a kiss filled with passion. We kissed each other hard, as if we would never see each other again, because truthfully we didn’t know when we next would.

When we finished and he let me go, I had to wipe away my own tear. I continued through the security line and looked back Liam every chance I got, until I was too far to see him any longer.

I woke up to the soft vibration of my phone. It was a relaxing and calming sound to me most of the time now since it usually meant that Liam was calling or texting me. But this time, it was my alarm, preparing me in such an innocent way for my first day back at school since I had gone to London to be with Liam over spring break.

So there I was, lying in my bed, staring at the ceiling. The vibrations of my phone continued every few seconds, and I flew my hand over next to my pillow. I grabbed my phone by instinct and disconnected the charger. I was relieved to see Liam’s name on the screen and not my annoying alarm. Although I was used to, and much preferred, seeing his face when I first woke up, his name and voice were the closest things I would get

Smiling, I pressed the small green button on my not-so-smart phone. “Good morning love,” Liam’s cheery voice shone through the phone. At 7:00 am in California I could hardly guess what time it was back London. Still, it took every bone in my body  to remember that he wasn’t right there next to me to cuddle up against as my anxieties began to set in.

“Good morning Liam. I miss you,” I said sleepily. I almost hear his smile on the other end. And it was true. I missed him more and more as the short moments went by. It hurt knowing that I wouldn’t be able to see him every day until the summer, and maybe not even then. Although the boys would sometimes bring their girlfriends on tour, I was a bit different. I was 17, I was a Junior in High School, I had SATs and ACTs and a transcript not yet impressive enough for any of the colleges I was setting my sights for.

“I miss you too. Now listen Ely, I want you to have an amazing first day back at school. And we both know you will. If anything gets difficult, text me. I can talk all day. If anyone says anything don’t hesitate to call me and I’ll set them straight. Ok Ely? Are you listening to me?”

I was listening; I was taking every single word he said to heart. I never wanted his voice to stop. “Ely?”

“Y-yes Liam. I’m listening,” I stammered.

“Good, now get out of bed sweetheart.” He needed with a big giggle, which I returned. “Call me when you get to school, ok? Do you promise me Ely?”

I couldn’t help but smile each time he called me ‘Ely’. He was the only one in the world to call me that, and I wanted to keep it that way. “Yes Liam, I promise.”

I smiled as we said our goodbye and I turned off the phone. This was going to be difficult.

 

**Liam’s POV**

I was worried about Elysa. She had been through a lot in such a short time, and I knew there were only going to be more difficulties with going back to school. She told me that Junior year was supposed to be the most difficult and she told me she got teased all the time. And now that she was in the spotlight with me, I knew it would only get worse.

After I hung up the phone, I held it close to my chest. I wanted to be with her so badly. I wanted to hold her in my arms before she fell asleep and kiss her on the forehead when she woke up. But it just wasn’t possible. She had school and I had One Direction and neither of us was in any place to get up and leave everything for the other. To ruin our futures and fly halfway across the world for each other was simply not an option.

I spent the day with the lads, trying to get my mind off of what Ely might be encountering in public school. They were great, joking, laughing. All of the lads were best friends with Ely and I think they missed her just as much as I did.

But even Nando’s couldn’t really get her off of my mind. I thought back to the first night Ely had spent with me in London when we took her to this exact restaurant and she had no idea what to order. I know she bonded with Louis a lot that night too, and I could see the sad expressions in own face.

Practically the entire day was spent thinking about Ely. I could just see the way her face would light up when she sat down in the driver’s seat of her own car. That thing was her baby, it was her life. She would be nothing without it. I imagined how she would be fiddling with the radio stations even for a short drive to school. I pictured her finding a parking spot and the flip of her hair in the early morning wind and she walked to class.

I kept looking down at my watch, as if time would fast forwards until she got home from school, meaning that her day was a success. Time was going slowly, way too slowly.

Until finally a buzzing came from my pocket. I jumped up and looked at the screen of my new iPhone. The other lads all discretely tried to look too, and just as we all thought, Ely was calling.

I walked outside of the building and over to an area that I thought would be relatively private. “Hey El-“ I started, but she cut me off quickly.

“It was horrible Liam! I walked into my first class and everyone just stared at me. No one would sit next to me, no one would be my lab partner. This girl Sage said she didn’t even believe me. She said you were gay and I was your beard. She told me you didn’t really like me. She told me you only wanted to use me. She said horrible things to me, Liam. And people kept looking at me all day and the only person that would talked to me at all was Zach and everyone else said that I was really rude but all I did was walk away and cry. I don’t know what to!” I could tell she crying hard into the phone, her body wrapped up just from the sound of her voice on the other end.

I took a deep breath in attempt to calm both of us down before I started to speak. I wanted to ask her about Zach, who for some reason bothered me just a bit, but I decided it was best not to. “Listen, Elysa, it’s going to be ok. Are you in your car?”

“Y-yes,” She stammered. I could tell she was still trying to hold back some of her tears.

“Then you are ok. You are going to be fine. Take a deep breath, wipe away your tears. You are going to go home and have your brother sign any forms you have from school then you are going to open your computer and call me on Skype, ok?” I paused for a minute and heard her grunt a bit in acknowledgement. “Then after we talk, you are going to bed early. Then you are going to wake up to a new day and put on the best clothes you own and show these girls that they mean nothing to you. Do you hear me Ely?”

I could hear the doubt coming from the other end before she even began to speak. “But what if I can’t do it Liam? What if they _do_ mean something to me? What if they really hurt me? They hurt me, I heard it in your voice, and that hurts me even more. It’s only been one day Liam, how am I supposed to keep doing this for the rest of the spring and an entire Senior year?” She paused for a moment, but I knew it was not to receive an answer. “I need you Liam,” she finally whispered through her tears.

I took another deep breath and reminded myself that I had to be strong for her. Yes, those things that Sage had apparently said about me had hurt, but I didn’t want to let that show to Ely right now. “You told me yourself what Sage said to you last year. Remember? She said no boy would ever go through what it would be to kiss you. And look at us now. We’ve proved her wrong once, we can do it again.” I tried my best to sound encouraging, but I was highly doubting the true power of the pep talk I was trying to give.

I knew she was crying hard on the other end still, and I wanted nothing more than to be able to wipe away her tears for her.

I hung up the phone and walked back to the lads sitting at the table. I think my face must have said it all because none of them even asked how she was. They just gave me sympathetic looks. Most of them had been through something similar with their girlfriends in the past; they had always told me that it was the initial hit that hurt the most and I finally understood that now. But it was even worse knowing how young Ely was. I should never have put her into this situation that she clearly couldn’t handle.

“Let’s  go back to the flats,” I suggested. The lads immediately agreed and we got up from the table to walk outside. Niall walked up to me and put his arm around my shoulders for support.

We walked outside only to see a small group of fans wanting to meet us. I put on a bit of a fake smile and took a few pictures as the other lads did the same. But there was a sense that something was wrong, and the fans all knew it. One of them walked up to me and just gave me a great big hug.

All was well until a paparazzi guy came up to me, taking pictures with a flash far too bright for that day. He was in all of our faces but seemed to be especially attached to mine. Then I found out why.

“WHERE IS ELYSA? DID YOU BREAK UP ALREADY? HOW DO YOU FEEL?” He practically yelled his questions at me and I was unable to come up with the words to answer.

I started to feel a bit weak and the lads noticed. Niall grabbed me and using Zayn as a way to get through the crowd led me directly to Harry’s car. Louis was a bit oblivious to what was happening around him, but Harry walked straight up to the yelling man.

“Mate, she’s in school in California. Cool off.” And if with that, he grabbed Louis and walked away to the car.

We sat there for a moment, the five of us in the car, unsure of what to say or do. Harry and Louis were in the front seat with the other three of us in the back of the Range Rover. Sandwiched between Niall and Zayn, I suddenly broke out into tears, covering my face. Harry took that as a queue to leave and drive us all home as Zayn and Niall did their best to comfort me.

It didn’t matter though. I missed Elysa so much that it hurt. What that girl at her school, Sage, had said really had hurt me. I felt crushed and I knew Ely did as well. I just wanted to be with her, to wipe away her tears, to hold her tight in my arms so she knew I was there for her.

**Elysa’s POV**

I must have sat in my car for nearly an hour, just waiting for time to pass. I didn’t want to deal with parking lot traffic and I just wanted to be alone. That’s how I lived, alone. The fact that I had someone to call when things went horrible wrong was a fairly new concept to me, but I liked it. Regardless, that person, Liam, was not around, so I wanted to be alone.

Most of that hour was spent in silence. The radio was off, my phone in the back seat so I would get distracted. I didn’t want to look at any of my texts. I didn’t want to see what my friends were saying on Twitter. I wanted to be alone.

I can’t even describe the feelings that went through my body and the thoughts that went through my mind that afternoon. Even while I was driving home, even while I was in my room alone, the time felt nearly unbearable.

Watching as the time ticked, I heard my brother walking throughout the house. I poked my head out of my door for a moment and saw him indulging in a peanut butter (no jelly) sandwich. He was on his computer making a quizzical face at the screen, and I knew immediately what that meant.

I closed the door again, not wanting to face him and explain things. I was scared of what the internet might say about me today. I was scared about what people from school would say. I went from being practically invisible at school to being the center of completely unwanted attention, and I hated it.

Finally it was time to Skype to Liam. I opened up my computer and didn’t touch the internet, I just went straight to Skype. I took a deep breath as I clicked on his beautiful picture. I missed him so much and I just wanted to hear his  voice again. I wanted him to tell me everything would be ok. I wanted to feel his arms wrapped around me and keeping me safe.

He answered the call right away and upon seeing his face, I let out probably the only smile of the day.

“Hi Liam…” I started softly. It was then that I noticed that his eyes were a bit puffy. “What happened? Were you crying?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he insisted. “I was just thinking about you a lot today. Are you doing better, love?” I lied to him and nodded my head, but he could see through my obvious expression. “I want you to go on Facebook.” He paused when he saw my concerned look and he sighed, coming back stronger with his words after. “Look, Ely, when you fall off a horse, you have to get right back on. You have to get yourself into your life. I know what can happen to you when things go horribly wrong, and I’m not going to let it happen. So,” he stated with a breath, “open up Facebook.”

I did as he instructed me, my hands feeling weak on my keyboard. I just told myself that everything was going to be ok because Liam said it would. And he was right. No one on my news feed was saying anything about me. My profile was still fairly invisible to all my ‘friends’ and I wasn’t tagged in any new pictures.

“Now go to Twitter,” he instructed.

Once again, I did as I was told. But this was a little different. Where on Facebook I knew everyone that I could see talking about me, on Twitter I didn’t. Anyone could say anything and tag me in it. Fans I didn’t even know were sending me hate, and my lip immediately began to quiver. Liam saw and knew exactly what was a wrong, and exactly what to say.

“Lock it,” he said quickly. “Lock your tweets. Put your Twitter on protected until most of the blows over.”

I nodded and did exactly what he said to do. When I finished changing my settings, I looked back into his eyes through the computer screen.

“Now I’m not going to tell you to go on Tumblr, because we both know that it could say absolutely anything and you can’t lock or hide things on there. But I am going to tell you to smile. Smile because you can; smile because you have to; smile for the both of us. Please Ely.”

I looked down and away from the computer screen as silence filled the air. I heard the begging in his voice as I turned my head to face the screen again and cracked a small smile that I was able to manage.

“Everything will be ok Elysa. I will be here with you every step of the way. Text me all day tomorrow. Don’t wait until everything gets as bad as it did today.” I nodded my head in agreement. I had been relatively silent up to this point, but just when I was about to say something, Liam looked down at his phone. “Just a moment, Niall’s at the door. I’ll let him in and be right back.”

Liam got up and I took another sigh of relief. I trusted Niall.

When Liam walked back into camera view with Niall there was a slightly bigger smile on my face. “There’s the smile I love!” Liam cheered at me. I blushed a bit, as I almost always did when someone – especially Liam – said something nice about me.

“Hey Elysa!” Niall cheered, bending down to get into the camera frame of Liam’s computer.

I stayed on Skype with the two of them for a while, now in a much better mood before I noticed how late it was. I knew that I had to go to bed soon if I would even have a chance of waking up and getting to school on time tomorrow.

“I have to go to bed guys,” I finally said.

Niall frowned and pouted his lips. “But I don’t want you to go!”

I giggled a bit in response. “I have to Ni. But I’ll talk to you tomorrow, I promise.”

“Goodnight!” he cheered in a silly voice before Liam looked at him. “I’ll give you two some space,” he winked as a joke. I rolled my eyes as he walked out of view. I heard a door in the distance of Liam’s flat close and I assumed that we were alone again.

“Thank you,” I spoke softly, letting my smile shine through.

“Of course love. You know I’m always here for you, I love you, so much.” He paused for a moment, and I could tell something was going through his mind. “Look I uh…I have a song you should listen to. I think it will cheer you up.”

“Sure. What song?”

(Keep your head up – Andy Grammer)

  _  
_

 


	13. Chapter 12

  **Elysa’s POV**

I planned to take the next day very slowly. My alarm was set to give me more than enough time to get up in the morning and talk to Liam if I wanted, but I decided that I didn’t need to. I wanted to prove to myself that I could do this day without him. I did, however, text Niall, Harry, and Louis. Just having friends that I knew I could contact because they understood the situation made me feel a bit more confident.

As I pulled out my clothes for the day, I thought about how I should have texted Zach. I had been a pretty bad friend to him in the past week, and he did nothing but try to support me yesterday. I got quickly distracted, however, by picking out just which generic T shirt I should wear.

I sat down in my car, once again comfortable with who and what I was. I was able to smile. I didn’t even turn on the radio as I didn’t want it to possibly ruin my good mood.  I still didn’t know how to handle being considered “famous”. I was just Elysa. Just a normal, dorky, lame, 17 year old California girl trying to find a balance in life. Somehow, I felt as if my imbalanced life was getting worse and worse off as of late, but I told myself that things had to get worse before they could get better, and I only hoped that was the truth.

I motivated myself constantly as I turned the key out of the ignition. I took a deep breath and opened the car doors so that I could get out and grab my backpack from the seat behind me. I closed the doors and clicked the buttons on my key chain, hearing the beep.

But as I walked closer and closer to my first class, I noticed a difference. There were people everywhere. And yes, it’s a public school where there are always people, but these were new people. These were older people. These were real people. It took me a couple of minutes to fully realize who these people were – they were paparazzi, and they were everywhere. It was like a scene out of _Princess Diaries,_ and Sage was telling a reporter that we were best friends.

I covered my face and pretended to be someone else. Somehow, I made it to other side of the school by keeping a good 20 foot radius between me and the nearest reporters. When I got to the other side of the school I looked down at my phone and noticed five new messages, all from unknown numbers, and all asking how my day was and if I wanted to hang out at lunch time.

And then a message from Niall came in.

_They found ur skool. Jus a warnin x_

And then not a moment later, a text from Zach came in. I sighed to myself, expecting it to be condescending and mad at me. He had every right to be. But it wasn’t.

_Dude, Sage is lying her ass off. Meet me behind the Admin, we need to talk._

I walked towards to Admin building while still attempting to keep a good distance from the reporters. I made a mental note to call or text Liam as soon as I could. I thought I could do this day on my own, but I was already proving myself wrong.

I finally met up with Zach behind the building and he gave me a great big hug. We hadn’t seen each other in the entire week that I was in London with Liam, and I hadn’t really had a chance to explain things to him yet.

“You need to hide in the guidance office.” His voice had a sense of urgency as I assured him that was my goal destination. He looked out around the corner of the building and noticed that the reporters were surrounding the front entrance. We both knew that getting through that crows was really not an option.

We ran quickly to the other side, knocking on the door of the teachers’ room that we normally would not have been allowed in. My guidance counselor, Ms. Dan, saw the two of us and rushed us inside of her office, making sure to stay inconspicuous while we were in view of the reporters through the windows.

“You sit here, the city police are coming to get rid of the reporters. I’ll be back in a moment.” And with that, Ms Dan was gone and it was just Zach and I.

We looked at each other a tad bit awkwardly before I started a conversation.

“So, what did you do over spring break?”

“Oh you know,” he smirked, “I got flown half way across the world by a famous boy band member, fell in love with him, and then came back to California. The usual.”

We both giggled a bit.

“So you aren’t mad at me?” I asked carefully after a moment.

He shook his head quickly. “Not at all.” Zach looked out the window before looking back to me. “Listen, I know we’re best friends, but you’re a girl and I knew this would happen sooner or later. Well,” he paused for a moment, smirking again. “I didn’t think it would happen like _this,_ but I knew you would eventually be in a relationship. And I'm not a girl so I never expected the gossip.”

I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder for a moment before I remembered the note I had made to myself earlier.

“Look, I have to call him. I’ll just uh…yeah,” I pushed my chair about a foot over, as far as I could go in the small office, and I dialed Liam’s number.

**Liam’s POV**

I was pacing back and forth in my flat waiting for Ely to call me. The lads were sitting on the couch together watching the news on the TV as well as various American channels on their computers. Sage kept being interviewed by the paparazzi. She said she was best friends with Elysa ever since they were little. She said they hung out every day and she was the first to know that she and I were dating, even before the announcement. She was lying through her teeth and it infuriated me.

Finally, my phone rang. I pressed the green button to answer it before the first ring was even complete. Hearing Ely’s voice made me feel so much better. I finally knew that she was ok.

“It’s crazy Liam,” she started, “They’re everywhere. No one is even going to classes and my guidance counselor said that the city police were coming to get rid of them. I’m sitting in her office with Zach right now.”

I couldn’t help but get a bit protective when she said she was alone in the small room with him. I didn’t trust this kid just yet. I had never met him and she talked about him a lot. But I tried to relax myself a bit with a deep breath.

“Just promise me that you’re ok right now?” She hummed in response and I released the breath that I had been holding. “Just stay in that office until they tell you where to go. Don’t go, don’t talk to anyone, ok love?” She agreed easily with me.

I wanted to stay on the phone with her forever and ever and ever, but she said the counselor was walking back in and I knew I had to hang up. I looked over to the lads sitting on the couch, and their faces had brightened a bit.

“Mate, that was awesome. This lady just yelled at Sage to go to class and she looked all upset and then the lady yelled at the reporters for trespassing on a closed campus.”

I sat down next to Louis to see the video he was watching. It was true, Sage was gone, thank goodness.

“We don’t start work for another few weeks, right?” I asked the boys for confirmation. They all nodded. “How crushed would you be if I went on a little vacation to California?”

**Elysa’s POV**

Eventually it got to be lunch time. I had forgotten to pack something for myself and when I remembered while driving I had just assumed that that I would be able to buy something. But that was no longer an option. Ms. Dan walked in just as lunch was about to begin.

“You two doing alright in here?” We nodded in agreement. “Good. So Elysa, we’ve called your brother about this situation. Unfortunately he’s caught in a class and won’t be able to meet you back at your house until 2:00 pm. The principal and I have devised a plan of how to get you home without anyone noticing.

I waited impatiently. I felt so safe in that room away from the reporters. I didn’t want to leave and risk the possibility of being seen and screamed at.

Zach shared his lunch with me while we waited.

When I finally got to my car and hugged Zach goodbye, I couldn’t help but smile. I watched him walk away to go to class for the first time all day and I envied him in a new way. I had always hated school, but now that I was unable to be invisible, I missed it a bit.

I called Liam a few times once I got home, but he never answered. Nervous about why he might not be answering, I sat down in my bed. Sam had come home and I explained what had happened. He nodded, trying to understand, but there was no way that he could have.

Eventually, I heard a knock on the door. I waited about three minutes before even walking towards it. I was worried that it would be paparazzi and figured that after that amount of time they would probably just have given up and left. When I opened the door just a tiny crack to see who it was I was ecstatic.

I pulled him into the house quickly and slammed the door behind him, grabbing his entire body into a tight hug. Feeling his body in my presence was amazing.

Sam walked into the room just then. “Hey!” he yelled with partially fake anger, “get your hands off of my baby sister!” I giggled a bit as I detached my body from Liam’s. I took his hand in mine and led him further into the house.

Sam and Liam gave each other a high-five-to-bro-hug and smiled. “Nice to see you again man,” Liam smiled.

“You too,” Sam answered, to my surprise. He was so protective of me that I thought he would be upset about something. “Take good care of her, ok bro?” he told more than asked with a nod of his head towards me.

Liam kissed my head sweetly before responding. “Of course. I won’t let anything happen to her…ever,” he responded looking me in the eyes.

We walked back into my room and sat on the bed. The last time we were here together was the day after the surprise concert. Things had changed so much since then.

I went through my small room picking up a few dirty things off the floor and throwing them in the basket in the corner. I looked around, noticing how not only had things between Liam and I changed since we were last in this room together, but how the room itself had changed.

 A few days ago, after coming home from England, I had taken nearly everything off of my walls. I don’t know why I did it, but at the time it had felt right.

“So um, this is it I guess,” I shrugged. “I’ll go so you can change.” I assumed he would be tired after the flight and stress that I had accidentally put him under. I smiled as I walked out of the room.

Alone outside of the door, I became afraid of what he thought of my room. I was still such a kid back in the days of the concert. It was strange how only a few weeks could change so much about a person, about two people.

After Liam opened the door I stepped inside. The sight of him in my room in the state he was in – ready for bed – was simply intoxicating. I changed quickly, hoping he wouldn’t really look at me too closely and I sat down in my bed.

**Liam’s POV**

I laid down in Ely’s bed for the first time. It was comfortable and it carried her scent. I opened my arms to allow her to rest her head on my chest, which she did. It felt so good to be back to this; back to normal. I loved stroking her hair at night. The ponytail so high on her head that it would not be socially acceptable to wear outside of the house was in the perfect place for me to let my fingers flow through it.

We lay there for a while, the light off and silence filling the room. I could feel the tension in her breaths just before I broke the uncomfortable silence.

“Ely, what’s wrong?” It must have caught her by surprise because I felt her breathing hitch a bit. “Why are you like this? The walls? Where did everything go?”

She hesitated a bit before answering. “I was a kid last time you saw this room. I can’t be that kid anymore, Liam. I’ve lived my entire life in this room, being taken care of. Then my parents announced the divorce and disappeared. Then I went to London with you. And now I'm back and nothing is the same. They didn’t just divorce each other, they divorced me.” I felt her choke up a bit as she spoke these words ever so softly. “I have to take care of myself now. And I know I can do it, I practically did it before. But I can’t let myself be a little kid anymore.”

I was silent for another moment or so before my voice interrupted the silent air. “Love, don’t do this to yourself.”

“Do what?” she replied innocently.

“I know you have been through a lot, but you are only 17. You can still be a kid if you want. I’m still a kid most of the time. I get that your parents are out of the picture, but don’t feel like you can’t rely on your brother and me; the other boys too. Sweetie, we are all here for you, and I mean it.”

I could hear her sniffle a bit. It was clear that she was trying to hold back her emotions from me.

“I love you Liam. I just…” she trailed off, hoping I would forget that she had started.

“You what love?”

She looked into my eyes, begging me not to make her continue, but I stood my ground until she finally responded.

“I needed to prove to myself that I could this. That I was strong enough.” She paused for a moment as I kept stroking her hair. “I guess I’m so used to people leaving when I need help that I don’t know how to take it when they offer it.”

At this, I held her in close to me and kissed her head slowly. “I’ll never leave, Elysa. I am going to help you out.

I enjoyed our closeness for a moment until an idea popped into my head.

“Do you and your brother pay the bills and buy groceries and everything?”

She seemed shocked by my question. “Uh yeah. He’s got a part time job after his classes and we’ve both got some college money that we’re using but-“

I cut her off. “No, keep that money. You are going to need it for college on one day. I’ll pay for that stuff.”

“Liam, you can’t do that,” she protested.

“Watch me.” I smirked and giggled. I knew she wanted to prove that she could take care of herself, but I needed to prove that it was ok to rely on other people sometimes. Eventually, I got her to agree. “You are so smart Ely, I’m not letting you throw all that away when I can change things for you”

I kissed her head again and felt her snuggle in closer to me. I loved this. I loved her. I never wanted this feeling of her against me to go away ever again.

 


	14. Chapter 13

**Elysa’s POV**

 I slowly began to wake up. Laying there in my bed in state between sleep and full consciousness I could feel Liam beside me. We must have been touching the entire night as I drifted off in his comfort.

I wasn’t fully ready to be awake yet though, so I stayed in the same comfortable position. I had to process what Liam had said the night before. He wanted to pay for my living expenses. It was so strange to hear that someone wanted to do something to help me out like that. But I knew I had to accept. Even if I kept using my college fund it would eventually run out, and my brother only made enough money at his job to put himself through school. Whether I liked it or I really had to let Liam do this for me.

And as hard as it was for me to take this gift from Liam, I had to admit I was excited. For the first time I felt like I might actually be able to go to college. If could get a job soon as start saving without having to worry about groceries, bills, and other little things like that, then I might be able to have enough to take at least a few classes at a community college, and that was more than I was hoping for just last week.

I let a smile spread over my face as I turned over to face Liam. He looked so amazing in his drowsy state. I kissed him slowly and lightly on his lips and backed away, feeling a bit embarrassed. I don’t think that feeling of embarrassment will ever go away.

“Good morning, love,” Liam said through his sleepy voice. I smiled at his sweetness which unknowingly turned me on. The way his voice sounded through his accent in his lazy morning mood was so sexy.

“Good morning, Liam,” I sighed back.

He turned on his side and looked at me with a giant smile. He kissed my lips sweetly and passionately. It made me blush and giggle a bit. I was still not in the routine of getting physical affection from Liam quite yet.

Liam stopped what he was doing and let out a huge yawn. He stretched his long, strong arms across the sides of my bed and rolled out onto the floor, landing perfectly on his feet. I stayed where I was, sort of just admiring his sculpted body before me. I sometimes forgot that this body could be all mine if I wanted it to be. My mined traced back and forth between those thoughts and others quite often.

“Let’s get something to eat, yeah?” He nodded towards the door and I got out of bed to follow his lead. He instantly interlaced his fingers with mine. It felt so nice to feel his warm hand again. I had missed it so much.

We made our way to the kitchen where I found a note from Sam. It said that he had gone to his classes and would be back at normal time in the evening. I showed it to Liam with a bit of a smile, biting my lip.

I had gone back and forth about this for a while in my mind, but every moment I was with him felt more and more right.

I took a deep breath, though, and moved across the kitchen. I was aware that I was probably giving him mixed signals, but I hoped that he would forgive me for that eventually.

Slowly, I pulled the curtain back from the kitchen window no more than three inches. In a short moment flashes were going off and I pulled the curtain back to its original position.

I felt my eyes start to water and I wasn’t sure if it was from the flashing lights or my emotions. Liam noticed quickly and walked up to me, pulling me in close to him. He rested one of his hands in the small of my back and the other on my head, letting me rest it on his chest. He tried his best to calm me, and after a few moments, it worked.

“I’ll toast us some bagels,” Liam finally said after I had calmed down. “Keep the curtains and the windows closed. And no phone unless it’s your brother,” he instructed me.

“Or Zach,” I added.

“Um..sure…” I could tell he seemed uncomfortable with Zach still.

We ate our breakfast of bagels together on the sofa in the living room, ignoring the old rules about no food out of the kitchen. He did a great job of cheering me up whenever something made me feel a bit down. We giggled and he held me close to him, making it nearly impossible for me to actually get upset over anything.

I was cleaning up our dishes and putting them in the sink when I heard Liam burst out laughing from the other room.

“What is it?” I asked, confused.

“Ely, you have to come see this article about you!” He called.

I was extremely confused, as he had been telling me all this time never to look at articles about myself. But when I walked into the room and read the title I couldn’t help but nearly scream.

 **“One Direction GF Elysa Cheating on Liam?”** read the headline. Underneath was a picture of me greeting Sam when he came home the other day.

Just then, the house phone began to ring. Liam and I looked at each other immediately. Neither of us were expecting the home phone to ring, so we just sat and waited for it to go to the machine.

”Hello, this is Laura Dan. The administration has met this morning regarding Elysa’s situation and we have decided that it is no longer safe for Elysa or for the other students for her to be attending standard public school with us. We have made arrangements to set up an independent study program through a series of online courses.”

We looked at each other again. I could tell something was going on in his mind because a smile was slowly starting to form on his face.

“Ely…if you don’t have to be at your school to go to school anymore…this means you can come on tour with us.”

Go on tour with them? There was no way that was going to be ok with…who would it have to be ok with? I could probably convince Sam if I had a tutor go with us. And traveling around the world with the boys is an experience that I would never get in any other way.

“Are you sure Liam? I mean…don’t you have to ask Paul?”

The smile never left his face. “Paul and I talked after you left London. He said if anything came up and you couldn’t be here, he would insist you join us on tour.”

I looked up into his eyes and eventually I started to smile. I couldn’t contain my joy any longer. I ran into him and gave him the biggest hug I possibly could, and a quick peck on his lips. I blushed a bit and giggled even though there was no one else in the room.

“We don’t leave right away though, right? I’ll probably need to get a tutor to convince Sam. And I have to say bye to Zach. And I have to pack up all my things and-”

He cut me off. “We have a week before the tour starts. It’s completely up to you,” he smiled kissing my forehead.

I smiled up at him. “Will you call Sam?” I asked a bit shyly. I didn’t want to ask him myself. He would think I was too young to make this type of decision. But if Liam asked him for me, it could come across differently. It would come across his idea and as him asking for permission instead of a silly little girl just informing her older brother.

**Liam’s POV**

I hung up the phone from talking to Sam. I knew I had to call him. He was her brother and I knew that he cared about her. He had already heard from the school about being enrolled in independent study and didn’t seem too surprised when I suggested that she join us tour. He thought it would be the best for her to be with me and the lads and our security in a time like this. We also agreed that we could use my position to get her one of the best tutors possible.

Obviously, I was excited. I put on my best poker face as I walked out of the room so that I could surprise Ely with the great news. Solemnly, I walked right up to her, held her hands and looked into her eyes. She seemed confused as to if she should be happy or upset, but my face soon broke into a smile and laugh as I just couldn’t hold in my excitement any longer.

“You’re officially coming on tour!”

I kissed Ely sweetly on the cheek. It was such an amazing moment. I was with the most amazing girl in the world who I was madly in the love and I just confirmed that she would be with me and by my side for the next few months _at least._

I reached to pick her up, intending to spin her around. But she stopped me with a flat face.

“No Liam, I’ll hurt you, I’m too big,” she protested seriously.

“No you won’t, I promise.” I smiled at her and saw her sigh as she gave in and let me lift her up and twirl her around.

I knew as we danced and cheered that I had another mission for the next few months. Adding to my list o f putting on an amazing show with my best friends and maintaining an amazing relationship with the most amazing girl I could ever ask for, I added on the challenge of truly making her believe that she was as beautiful as I saw her. 


	15. Chapter 14

**Elysa’s POV**

Zach came over the day Liam and I were leaving to say goodbye. I could tell that things between him and Liam were a bit tense, but I couldn’t deal with it that day.

“Just be careful, ok?” He said releasing me from a long hug. “High School is rough, but the real world is rougher. If you ever need anything, call me first.”

He backed up and held my arms. Looking into Zach’s eyes, I remembered all the times we’d had together. The times he stuck up for me when I was being bullied, the times he ditched his “cooler” friends to hang out with me, everything. He was the one constant thing in the past few years.  I realized that he was the most amazing friend I could probably ever ask for.

 “I’m going to miss you so much Zach,” I whimpered. I was holding back tears by taking deep breaths instead.

“You’re going to be fine. Just don’t forget about us little people, ok kid?”

“You know I’m like eight months older than you, right?” I chuckled and he hugged me again.

We hugged a few more times but Zach had to leave and we both knew it. I almost wished he could have come with Liam and me, but I could tell that Liam was glad to be leaving him behind. I understood where his jealousy could come from though.

“Look, I have to go to track.” He put his hand through his hair. I could tell he was worried about me.

“One day you should just run all the way to London,” I teased. He laughed.

We looked at each other awkwardly, not knowing how long we were going to be away from each other. I could feel Liam’s eyes burning as we stood there.

“I uh…I guess I’ll see you. Ya know..when the tour comes here I guess.”

“Yeah…I guess.”

No matter how hard we tried we just couldn’t seem to get our goodbye right.

Liam took a step towards us. “Bye dude,” he said, eager for Zach to leave.

Zach nodded his head towards both Liam and I and walked out the door.

I had already said goodbye to Sam earlier in the day before he left for his classes. I stood alone in the room and looked into Liam’s eyes.

**Liam’s POV**

I could tell Ely was nervous from the moment we left her house. I had grabbed onto her hand, trying to comfort her. I squeezed her hand when I felt her getting nervous, rubbed her thumb when she started to shake. But there wasn’t much I could do. She was scared and I could tell.

It’s not like I could blame her. Last time she had come to London with me the trip had an expiration date. But this time neither of us really knew how far this would go. I tried my best to keep a strong front for her, because I knew she needed my support.

Being strong wasn’t all that difficult to be honest. Although I had some of those second thoughts that she did, which was natural, I couldn’t possibly have been more excited. I was going to go on tour with my best mates, live the life I've always wanted, and share it with the girl I loved. There was nothing that could have been better than this. And to tell the truth, I was hoping that being away would make her want to relax and let me take our relationship to the next level.

Honestly, between Ely’s worries and mine, her excitement and mine, and the rest of the lads, the flight had been completely and utterly exhausting. So when we landed back in London we decided to find a way out and to the cars without seeing too many fans. It was a good thing we did too, because we both looked horrible.

The two of us slept the entire car ride from the airport to my flat. She rested her head on my shoulder and I put my arm around her. I loved the feeling of being so close to her. I had missed it so much. We barely even woke up when we got home. I helped her with her bags, left them in the living room, and we both passed out on the bed pretty quickly.

**Elysa’s POV**

I woke up and rolled over, having almost forgotten where I was. When I opened my eyes and saw Liam’s beautiful face beside me I couldn’t help but smile. This was exactly where I wanted to be. For the first time in over a week I had actually slept through the night. I had a nice dream and woke up to the sun squeezing beautifully through the windows beside the bed. It was a perfect moment.

Liam opened his eyes soon after and caught me staring at him.

“I promise I wasn’t trying to be creepy,” I defended myself.

He giggled and kissed me sweetly, assuring me that it was ok. I smiled again and kissed him back. Something about being here, in this bed, made me more confident. Or maybe it was just that I was with Liam.

No longer did I blush when he complimented me or feel embarrassed when he kissed me. Now, I was happy for these things to happen. It felt good and it felt right and I loved it.

Liam kissed me again, this time lingering a bit longer on my lips than usual. I kissed back, enjoying the moment, savoring the feeling that Liam gave me. Even after we had both just woken up our mouths worked in perfect sync. I smiled into his lips and he smiled back before deepening the kiss.

I allowed his tongue access into my mouth and let him have the dominance. I still wasn’t very confident when it came to this aspect, so I just ried to relax. It was nice and I felt loved at every moment that Liam and I were touching. His large T shirt that I had thrown on the night before was soft and warm and still smelled like him, as did the sheets.

Then Liam rolled over so he was more on top of me and tried to deepen the kiss even further. “Mmhmm,” I shok my head no, trying to nicely get him off of me.

“Why not?”

“I just…I’m not ready…”

I could feel his boner already pressing into my leg and I wasn’t surprised to see him pout a bit. “Are you sure?”

“I uh…yeah. I’m not ready,” I nodded.

This was the first time that I had noticed him wanting it so badly. I had said no to things before, but he seemed to understand better before too. He rolled off of me and sighed before placing his arm around me.

“I still love you,” I told him.

“I know,” he smiled, kissing my head softly. “I just love you so much and I want to show you so badly. But,” he paused, “I can wait until you’re ready.”

I smiled and rested my head on chest for a moment. Hearing him say something like that to me send my mind into a whirlwind of thoughts. Had it not been only a few months ago that I was sitting alone in my room procrastinating homework and writing a letter to a band I loved that I thought would never even read it? Things had escalated quickly, but had I let them escalate too quickly?

“How about some breakfast then?” he asked. I nodded my head yes as he got up out of the bed and turned to look at me. “Up you go!” he cheered at me. I just wanted to stay in bed all day and sleep forever. It had been so long since I slept as well as I did last night.

“Please Liam?” I begged and gave him a puppy dog look, but his puppy face was far better than mine, and I caved. “Fine, but you’re cooking,” I said playfully as I sighed and got out of the most comfortable bed I had ever slept in.

He wrapped his arm around my waist and kissed my cheek from behind, making me giggle. I turned my head backwards and kissed him on the lips before he whispered into my ear, “I love you.”

Liam released me for a moment before taking my hand in his and leading me down the hall from the bedroom to the kitchen and signaling for me to sit at the counter. I did as I was told and sat there, mesmerized by the beautiful boy standing in front of me, cooking pancakes.

Right on cue, Harry burst through the door without even bothering to knock. It was just like the first morning I woke up here last time.

“Morning Elysa, morning Liam. So guess what happened last night?” I rolled my eyes. Could he seriously not wait to tell me about some girl?

“What Harold? Please inform us of your mischievous adventures with the female species.” Liam tried to stifle a laugh but fail awfully, spilling some pancake batter in the act.

“Actually,” Harry looked a bit annoyed at me for my comment for a moment, but it quickly passed as his excitement came back. “I got a call that you might be interested in Elysa. But if you don’t want to hear it…” He trailed off and started walking away from me, teasing me with excitement.

“No wait! Harry! What was it?!”

“Fine fine, I guess you’ll have to know.” I smiled with a feeling of accomplishment even though deep down I knew he would have to tell me sooner or later. “Your brother called a tutoring agency as soon as he found out and he’s interviewing tutors on the phone today.”

The information was exciting, but also a little bit strange. I had expected to start making calls today with Liam, I wanted to be a part of choosing my tutor.

“I’ll tell him to choose three and then I’ll choose from there.” For a moment I was a bit confused as to why Sam would have called Harry, and not me or Liam. Then I remembered that I had never given him Liam’s number and he probably assumed that I was still asleep.

“Choose a fit one,” Harry winked and I rolled my eyes. He moved and sat down next to me at the counter. “Making enough for me, mate?” he asked Liam.

“Nope,” he chuckled in return.

“Hmph,” Harry huffed in return. “Fine I’ll go make my own breakfast!” he threatened, as if it were a bad thing.

Liam and I giggled as he walked out the door and Liam brought me a steaming plate of pancakes. They looked delicious and perfectly fluffy.

After eating breakfast, I spent the rest of the morning trying to do some math homework. It was getting difficult and none of my calculator programs were helping me. I was getting more and more frustrated by the moment, and I was afraid that soon I would smash my hand down on the table so hard that one of them would break.

“Liam! I give up! Come do this for me!” I yelled across the apartment. I could hear him chuckle from the other room.

“Elysa, do your maths!”

“How many times do I have to tell you this,” I said as he walked through the doorway. “There is no ‘s’ at the end, there is only one of them and it sucks.” It made him giggle a bit.

He walked around to behind my chair and looked over my shoulder at the work I was attempting to do, then back at me. Liam kissed my cheek sweetly.

“Love, do your work or your brother will make you go back to California.” He gave me his puppy face as I gave in and he started walking the other way.

At first I had been really excited for independent study, but things had changed in just a short period of time. I saw what Liam and the other boys were doing and how successful they were without having even finished school. I saw my brother who was struggling to put himself through college and so far he was coming out with almost nothing. And I saw myself at an impasse that I just couldn’t quite figure out.  


	16. Chapter 15

**Liam’s POV**

After a few weeks of having Elysa in London with me, it was finally time for the tour to start. The first show was going to be nearby, but management has us all together a few days in advanced. Elysa was nervous, and I could tell. These past few days she hadn’t left the flat much unless it was to go see the other lads. It was really out of character for her because she usually was really into exploring. But she spent most of her time working on school and talking to her brother, trying to find her a tutor.

It made me sad seeing her keep herself locked up inside all the time, but she was getting a lot of work done. She said it kept her mind off of things at home, that doing more work now would make it easier while we were really on tour. But I could see through her words. I knew she was scared to be going somewhere new, just like she was when she first got here over Spring Break.

To top it off, she had told me something in a moment of weakness last night. We were cuddling as usual, slowly drifting to sleep with the sounds of one of her favorite American TV shows in the background. My eyes were closed and her breathing has slowed and deepened to a pace that I could only assume meant she was drifting into her beautiful dreamland as well. All of a sudden, I felt her head move off of my chest as she looked up at me.

“Liam?” she said softly, trying hard not to wake me up if I had already fallen asleep.

“What babe?” I responded just as softly.

“I’m scared.”

She didn’t need to explain. I understand what she was trying to say completely. I held her in tightly as we lay there together. There was nothing I could say to make her change the way that she felt, but that was ok. I don’t think she needed or wanted words, just me. I made sure she was aware of my loving presence until well after she had finally drifted off, and that was that.

Usually management tried to separate any girls we brought with us from us, but Elysa was the only one on tour this time, and management saw her for what she was, a young, innocent girl who used me for support and love. They gave in and let us share a room, with the caveat that if they heard anything, or any rumors started surfacing, they would split us up in the hotel. We agreed as we moved into the first hotel of the tour, which was relatively close to my flat.

“Careful love,” I warned her, as I joined her on the bed, holding her close beside me.

We laid there for a while, each in our own little worlds. I was completely taken by her beauty in the moment, fantasizing about how much I loved this girl next to me. And she seemed to be daydreaming about the room itself.

“Can we explore the hotel?” she finally asked after almost half an hour of cuddling on the bed. I giggled, amused at her childness that I loved so much.

“Of course, Ely. I’ve been here before though. There isn’t much.”

She jumped up despite my words, grabbing her room key and heading for the door.

“Don’t you want your shoes?” I asked her.

“Nope!” she said cheerfully as she ran out the door in front of me.

I quickly slipped on a pair of flip flops and chased after her. She was so alive, so happy, so filled with joy. I loved seeing her curious side and imagination as we explored small parts of the hotel that I never would have thought interesting before. She just seemed to see the world in a totally different way than I did.

We passed loads of fans on the way, and they all seemed to laugh at my chasing Ely around the hotel. At first they asked for autographs and pictures, but soon realized that I was preoccupied. Some tried to stop Ely, but she was in her own little world.

Finally, she came across the pool. It was an indoor pool, but they had somehow managed to keep the chlorine smell mostly out of the room. It was filled with windows and skylights displaying the beautiful day around us. We both stopped and looked up through the translucent ceiling. I walked closer to her, wrapping my arms around her waist and slowly kissing her lips.

I could feel her smile as we walked to the other end of the pool and sat down together on a lounge chair.

“So tell me what was going on in that head of yours,” I asked her.

She simply giggled at first, but then responded. “I don’t know. I just like exploring. I didn’t really have friends growing up, so I lived like six different lives inside of my head. And sometimes now I go exploring and find places that remind me of those lives and those adventures and I don’t know, it’s just fun.”

I smiled and kissed the top of her head while pulling her back into my lap.

“I love you Ely,” I told her sweetly. I could feel her blushing and giggling a bit in my arms. “We’ll definitely have to spend more time here,” I told her, signaling to the large room around us.

“Maybe…” she sighed. It was a total turnaround from her mood only moments earlier while rushing through the halls of the hotel.

“What’s wrong babe?” I asked her lovingly.

She took a deep breath before speaking. “I love swimming, but I don’t have a bathing suit.”

“Not a problem darling, we’ll find you one.”

She ripped herself out of my arms with a sigh and turned her body to face me. “No Liam, I don’t have a bathing suit because nothing fits me. Besides, I’m too fat to look good in anything.”

That simple statement had broken my heart. I couldn’t imagine the girl I loved so much feeling like this. “Ely, you’re wrong. I’ll prove it to you. Tomorrow we’ll go shopping and everything will be perfect, just like you.” I saw as her eyes welled up with tears, “Ely!” I shouted as she made a mad dash for the doorway. It was no use, she was already gone. But I knew exactly where she was going to go.

 

**Elysa’s POV**

I ran as fast and as far as I could, which meant about three minutes. After I had tired myself out I changed my pace to a quick walk. I was still barefoot as I dashed back through the hotel, trying to remember the short cuts I had come across on my way to the pool room. I kept my head down, trying not to let my emotions show through to the fans that were still crowding the hotel. Suddenly, I felt a solid surface on my face. I had walked into Louis.

“Love, where are you going? Where’s Liam? Where are your shoes?” I paused for a moment, trying to catch my breath and I buried my face into his chest. He squeezed me tight, still not knowing what was wrong.

“Is there a park around here?” I asked through my subtle tears.

“Yeah, just around the block that way, why?” But I had left his arms before he could finish or get his answer.

Quickly, I ran to the door of the hotel, making my way outside. I pushed my way through the small mob of fans that I had grown accustomed to seeing everywhere I went with Liam and the boys. They questioned me, trying to figure out what was happening, but I kept my head down as I quickened my pace.

I finally made it to the park that Louis was talking about. I ran up to a tree and paused, catching my breath for a moment. I immediately noticed the low branches and hoisted myself up, climbing as high as I possibly could. About halfway up the tree, the branches started getting smaller, and I was scared that my heavy body would break them, so I stopped. Finding a comfortable position, I just sat and looked at the sky.

For some reason, being in this tree relaxed me. Hearing the birds around me and in the sky, feeling the wind wisp across my face, it was nature and it was all very soothing to me.

I soon remembered how when I was little, before my parents separated, there was a tree down the street from my house. I would run over there and just sit for hours at a time whenever something was bothering me. My parents were ok with it because they knew where I was, and they never chased after me. I would always return home eventually to lie down on my bed until I drifted off to sleep.

I couldn’t figure out why I was so upset though. Liam already knew I was insecure about my body. I had talked to him about it before and it was one of many reasons why I was making him wait so long to go very far sexually. It didn’t matter how many times he told me I was beautiful though, I knew I wasn’t. I knew I was fat, and ugly, and that he could have so much better than me. I sat there silently sobbing to myself about unworthy I was of Liam’s love.

Then, I heard footsteps bellow me. Liam, Louis, Niall, and Harry had chased me out of the hotel. They looked around frantically until I made eye contact with Niall, who took a deep breath and nudged the other boys. I didn’t want to talk to Liam though, I didn’t deserve it.

“Ely!” he called up to me. I didn’t respond, I even looked the other way. “Ely!” he called again. I started to let tears roll down my face, and he must have noticed because I heard the brokenness in his voice as he called out to me one more time.

He stopped, apparently unsure of what to do, and hugged Niall for support. Some fans had followed them, so Harry spent time taking pictures with them to distract from the current situation. Louis walked up right to the base of my tree and looked up at me. I looked into his eyes, unsure of what he was feeling or what the look he was giving me meant until he opened his mouth to speak.

“Elysa,” he said harshly, “get down from that tree.”

I sniffled some tears back into me before responding with a weak “no?”

“Yes Elysa. Yes. You will get down from that tree, or I am coming up.” I looked down at him, watery eyes, begging for him to not make me leave my safe place. “Fine,” he grunted.

And with that, he removed his own favorite pair of Toms and climbed the tree up to my spot. I shuffled around so that there was room for him on my branch and I just sort of looked at him.

“Elysa, you hurt Liam. Look at him, he’s crying down there.”

“I didn’t do anything to him, I just…I just…” I wasn’t sure how to explain what I had said and what had happened, because in all honestly I didn’t quite know why I was so upset over something that I had said about myself.

“I know exactly what happened Elysa. I don’t think you understand how much Liam loves you. Whenever you say something negative about yourself, it hurts him. It really does. And then you ran away and he thought he might have lost you for some reason. He’s down there blaming himself for not showing you that he loves you enough.”

I was speechless. I had no idea that what I had said had hurt him so much. I sat for a moment, thinking silently to myself. Louis only shrugged and made his way down the trunk of the tree.

When he reached the ground, I saw him talking to Liam and Niall. They all nodded heads and Louis and Niall walked over to where Harry was. They ushered the fans as far away as they could and Liam came right up to the base of the tree.

“Babe, I love you, so much,” he said through a broken voice.

I only nodded, unsure of what to say.

“Look I uh…I want to sing something to you.”

So he did.

She loves her brother’s lemonade

Hates the sound that goodbyes makes

She prays one day she’ll find someone to need her

She swears that there’s no difference between the lies and compliments

It’s all the same if everybody leaves her

 

And every magazine tells her she’s not good enough

The pictures that she sees makes her cry

 

She would change everything, everything, just ask her

Caught in the in between of beautiful disaster

She just needs someone to take her home

 

She’s giving fans what they want

Tries to act so nonchalant

Afraid they’ll see that she’s lost her direction

She never stays the same for long

Assuming that she’ll get it wrong

Perfect only in her imperfection

 

She’s not a drama queen

She doesn’t want to feel this way

Only seventeen and tired, yeah

 

She would change everything for happy ever after

Caught in the in between of beautiful disaster

She just needs someone to take her home

 

She’s just the way she is

But no one’s told her that’s OK

 

She would change everything, everything, just ask her

Caught in the in between of beautiful disaster

 

She would change everything for happy ever after

Caught in the in between of beautiful disaster

She just needs someone to take her home

She just needs someone to take her home

 

By the time he finished the song I was essentially sobbing into my own hands. Everything he had said was completely true. I made my way slowly down the tree and into his arms.

“I love you so much Elysa. I’m ready to take you home.” He whispered it so softly in my ears and through his tears that I could only barely hear it.

I took his hand in mine and we walked over to a swing set a few yards from the tree and sat down. It was quiet for a moment. The fans were off with the rest of the boys and had seemingly forgotten about the two of us.

“I love you Liam,” I said finally. And it was true. I loved him more than I had ever loved anybody else before. “I just don’t love myself.”

I saw in his eyes what Louis had told me about him being hurt by those words. “Let’s go back to the room, there’s something I want to tell you. Alone.”

He took my hand in his and held me closely. It was as if he was worried I run off again or get pulled away by fans.

 “Don’t your feet hurt?” he asked me, probably just realizing that I was completely barefoot outside.

I smiled and giggled, shaking my head in response. He kissed my head sweetly and smiled back as we continued to walk towards the hotel again.

We finally made it to our room, but in front of our door was Paul. He looked mad, but I was unsure why.

“Everything ok Paul?” Liam asked.

“No, you and I need to talk.” He paused and looked over to me. “Alone.”

Liam looked at me apologetically, but I understood. He kissed me lightly on the lips, causing me to blush a bit, and he reminded me of how much he loved me. He slipped the key in and out of the door handle and I disappeared from him behind the door as he and Paul walked down the hall.

I took a deep breath and swallowed back my pain that Liam wasn’t able to walk into the room with me. We were in the middle of such high emotion and Paul just took him away from me. It wasn’t the first time that had happened either. I hated the fact that I had to share Liam with management and fans and media, but I hoped that I would soon get used to it.

I lay down on the bed, my back falling into the soft cushiony mattress and plush blankets. I forced my eyes to stay open as I continued to admire the room around me. It was huge. Way bigger than the room we stayed in that night in California, and way bigger than anything I Had ever experienced on my own.

The bedroom was cozy, with a huge TV, just like Liam’s at his apartment. Then there was a living room, with another large TV, a mirror, a desk, plenty of seating. There was even a mini kitchen with a mini fridge, microwave, a toaster, and some counter space. And the bathroom was amazing. The huge shower head had gazilions of different settings, there were two sinks, everything was just so extravagant.

But I couldn’t hold my eyes open much longer, as the high emotion of the day had already worn me out. I felt my eyelids become heavy, but my vision had mostly blurred already. I smiled as I felt myself drift into slumber.

**Liam’s POV**

Paul sat there and talked to the five of us in a room together. But honestly, I have no idea what he was saying. All I could think was Elysa alone in that bedroom. I knew her history and I was honestly afraid of what she might do while she was feeling like this. I wanted to prove to her that she didn’t need to feel badly about herself, that she needed to love herself as much as I loved her.

I finally got to my room and slid the key in. I opened the door slowly, almost afraid of what I might see. But I was met with a happy surprise. Elysa was peacefully sleeping on the bed in front of me. I smiled as I closed the door slowly and quietly, being careful not to wake her up from what must be a beautiful dreamland. I slowly crawled into bed with the girl of my dreams, and put my arm around her.

I’m not sure how long I was lying for. I must have fallen asleep at some point. But eventually, I felt some movement within my arms. I opened my eyes to see Elysa smiling at me, and I sweetly kissed her lips. She blushed, as always, and I smiled. I loved this girl so much, so much more than she would ever understand. It broke me to think that she didn’t love herself that much. But I was determined to fix that.

“Someone’s been knocking on the door…” she slowly whispered.

I rolled over to face the door, only to hear a knock coming from the other side. I yawned, kissing Elysa sweetly one more time before rolling out of the bed. I looked through the peep hole and saw Niall, so I opened the door.

“Mate, I’ve been knocking for hours.” I turned to look at Elysa who pretended to be asleep again, or maybe she wasn’t pretending, I wasn’t sure.

Niall walked in and sat on the couch in the living room area. The suite was big, but still small enough that I was sure Elysa could have heard us talking if she was awake.

“So what’s going on with her?” Niall motioned to the bedroom, I’m sure he was assuming that she was asleep as we could both hear her deep breaths. I finally came to admit to myself that she was, in fact, passed out again.

“She’s just got some self esteem issues is all.” I looked away. I couldn’t look Niall in the eyes while admitting that something was wrong with Elysa.

“So does every girl, mate,” he said rather casually.

“But every girl isn’t the girl of my dreams!” I whisper shouted back at him. It took him by surprise for a moment. there was silence before I saw the gears in his mind turning, ready to change the topic.

“I met this girl today. When we were at the park. She’s a fan, but she didn’t freak out. Reminds me a bit of Elysa actually. She’s shy, and pretty, and a little young. Her name is Reily.” He blushed and smiled as he told me this, and I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Irish name, eh mate?” I teased him a bit, and only blushed more. Niall was so adorable, I was so happy he had found a girl that he was interested in.

“I gave her a VIP ticket to the show tomorrow. That’s what you did with Elysa, right?” He looked worried, as if he could make a mistake.

“Sort of, mate,” I smiled and patted his back. “Go talk to her more, get out of here!” I ushered him out, thinking I might have heard Elysa start to stir in the other room.

**Elysa’s POV**

I heard the door open and close, and knew that I could stop faking my sleep. Liam walked in and I smiled at him mischievously, telling me that I had heard what Niall told him. He sat down on the bed and wrapped his arms around me once again.

“So what did you want to tell me?” I asked him honestly. It had been killing me ever since we left the park.

“Oh yeah,” he said as he popped up. He put on a sweet yet slightly cheeky smile on his face. He walked over to his computer and lifted the top of it up. Now I was confused.

“What are you-“

“Shhh!” he cut me off. I obliged, still confused. He continued on his computer, looking for a video in one of his folders. He turned it towards me and I saw a guitar that looked like Niall’s.

“I had Niall record this for me. I would have him here, but I wanted this to be just the two of us.”

He pressed play on the video and then turned to me and began to sing for a second time in only a few hours.

Much as you blame yourself, you can’t be blamed for the way you feel

Had no example of a love, that was even remotely real

How can you understand something that you never had

Ooh baby if you let me, I can help you out with all of that

 

Girl let me love you

And I will love you

Until you learn to love yourself

 

Girl let me love you

And all your trouble

Don’t be afraid, girl let me help

 

Girl let me love you

And I will love you

Until you learn to love yourself

 

Girl let me love you

A heart of numbness

Gets brought to life

I’ll take you there

 

My heart sunk into my chest and the tears started to roll down my face. HE stopped, pausing the music from his computer.

He rushed back to the bed and sat beside me with his arms around me, rubbing my back. “Shh…baby don’t cry. I love you and I’m going to teach you how to love yourself too, ok?”

I smiled and turned to the boy holding me in his arms. I couldn’t get any words out, so instead, I kissed him sweetly. I tried to pull away, but Liam kept me close, kept kissing me. IT was magical. I couldn’t tell what he was trying to do though, and I stubbornly pulled back.

“I can’t do this Liam, not now anyway.”

He looked sad and I watched him take a deep breath. “Ok, we’ll try again later. But I really do love you Elysa.” I smiled and kissed him sweetly once more before wrapping myself in the warm blankets.

 

 


	17. Chapter 16

  **Liam’s POV**

I woke up just a few moments for Ely, but those few moments were amazing. Watching her sleep in my arms put a smile on my face that I never wanted to wipe away. She looked so happy and peaceful, and I knew that whatever she was dreaming about would someday come true. Our arms and legs were entangled and I never wanted to let go.

Soon I felt her yawn and squirm a bit. She rubbed her eyes open and turned her head a bit to look at me and smile. I returned the favor and kissed her sweetly through her messy morning hair.

“Good morning love,” I whispered into her ears.

She rolled over so that she was resting her head in that spot on my chest that I knew she loved and had grown accustomed to before echoing me with a lazy tone.

Everything was perfect. Everything was wonderful. I wish that moment could have lasted forever. But we heard a knock on the door and both let out a loud sigh.

I got up slowly, kissing her head one more time for good measure, then walked to the door. The knock continued quickly and frantically, and I saw Ely sit up out of the corner of my eye.

When I opened the door it was Niall and Louis, I let out a relaxed breath before realizing that they were still frantic. They were talking quickly and in hushed tones to each other and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.

“Niall…Niall!” I tried to get his attention, but he nearly ignored me as he continued his conversation with Louis as if he had not just walked into our room.

Finally, he stopped, and looked me dead in the eyes. He couldn’t get words to come out and I was confused. Louis stepped in, filling the hole.

“You don’t remember anything that Paul told you yesterday, do you?” I stayed blank, worried that I had missed something that would affect Ely.

“What did he say?” I asked softly, trying to gage the situation. I was so distracted yesterday that it was as if I hadn’t even been in the meeting with them at all.

“He told us that if Elysa didn’t find a tutor soon she would have to leave. Her running to that park yesterday was horrible for management and they are pissed as hell!”

At that moment, Harry carefully opened the door that I must have accidentally left ajar. He looked over to Elysa and smile shyly.

“Are you telling her?” Harry asked softly.

“We just did,” Niall said. He sounded almost scared.

I watched Elysa slowly get out of the bed and walk over to her phone. She picked it up and dialed her brother. But for some reason she put the phone down just as quickly.

“What time is it here?” she asked quickly.

I looked down at my watch and realized what was happening. I looked to the other lads, then back to Ely with a sympathetic look. “Babe, we have to get ready for sound check.”

The other boys left the room almost as suddenly as they had come in. I helped Ely pick out what to wear, it would be her first real day on tour. I pulled out a pair of skinny jeans and a pink flowing top.

“I don’t like this Liam. The pants are too tight and the pink makes my face look wier-“ I cut her off with a kiss.

“You look perfect ok love? We can go shopping on my next day off and get you some new clothes, but you look lovely and I don’t want to hear any more of you putting yourself down like that.”

I saw her blush as she turned around and grabbed her favorite flip flops. I walked up behind her and pulled her in close from behind. I wrapped my arms around her stomach and I immediately felt her trying to wiggle out.

“Sh, not babe, you are perfect,” I whispered into her ears. I knew she didn’t want my hands there. I knew it would make her self conscious. But I dropped my face onto her shoulder and she turned her face to look into my eyes.

“Ok,” she sighed as I kissed her sweetly. She blushed again before I released her and we walked out of the room.

We made it to the venue and I could still see how uncomfortable Ely was feeling in the outfit that I had picked out for her. I felt a bit badly for making her go out of her comfort zone, but I couldn’t help it. She looked stunning and I knew this would help her get passed some things.

The lads and I were on stage doing a sound check for a while, Ely being the only person out in the audience area. The five of us played and spoke directly to her as we practiced and ran through the show and all of the equipment. I kept trying to get her to stand up and dance with the music, but I could tell that she felt a bit awkward. I smiled lovingly at her, as that was all I could do from the stage.

But sooner or later, Paul came and interrupted us, letting us know that we were done with the sound check and wanted for interviews. Ely walked up to me, her arms wrapped around her stomach, trying to hide herself. I took her in my own arms and kissed her forehead lightly, reminding her that I loved her. Paul led the lads and me to a room with reporters and signaled for Ely to head back stage.

**Elysa’s POV**

I walked back stage with my arms still around my stomach. I was trying to hide myself from anyone who could see any part of me. I didn’t even care if Liam said that I looked good, I felt exposed. Every time I turned around I could swear someone was staring at my butt, and when I bent over I felt as if my boobs were going to fall out of my shirt.

I finally made it to a room that held the same red couch that I had sat on back stage when Liam first gave me a VIP ticket to the surprise show in California. I sat down on it, reminiscing.

I was so entranced by my memories that I didn’t even notice when a girl walked through the door.

“Hi, I’m Reily,” she told me. The girl smiled, revealing her pearly white teeth that had been hidden so well within her freckled face. She had bright green eyes that shone through her strawberry blonde hair that was covering her face. She pushed it back behind her ears to reveal her innocent demeanor.

“Hi, I’m Elysa,” I responded.

“Oh um, I know,” she said softly. “I’m your tutor.”

**Liam’s POV**

Our interviews went slowly. All I could think about was Elysa and how she was doing. I knew she felt uncomfortable, and I could only hope that things would get better. But there really was no saying what would happen.

When they finally finished, I raced back to the room where I knew Ely would be sitting and waiting for me. When I walked in I was surprised to see her smiling and sitting next to another girl. I stood up straight, putting on a façade for this girl whom I assumed to be a fan.

“Hi, I’m Liam,” I said as I walked towards her.

“I’m Reily,” she said softly.

Ely stood up from the couch and walked over to me, leading me a step over. “Uh, Liam. Reily is going to be my tutor while we’re on tour.”

 


	18. Chapter 17

**Elysa’s POV**

I began to get the hang of our daily tour routine. In the morning Reily and I would work on some school work, although we often got distracted by each other or the boys. Although Reily was 21, a few years older than me, we really did have a lot in common. Not to mention she was a huge fan of the boys already. I noticed her getting especially close to Niall, which was nice.

We worked through the boys going off to the venue to do a sound check, and then management drove us to the venue. Reily and I had decided after the first few shows that we would rather stay backstage and give our VIP tickets away to one of the fans waiting out front who deserved it more.

Reily and I waited back stage as usual as the boys preformed somewhere in Ireland. I couldn’t find a moment when there wasn’t a smile on Niall’s face, and consequently, on Reily’s. They had a great audience and a great show.

When they finished, the boys ran off of the stage with giant smiles still plastered on their faces. Liam ran straight to me and kissed me hard, taking all the breath out of my lungs.

When he finally released me, I couldn’t help but smile as well. “You did a great job tonight,” I told him, as always.

“I know this GREAT pub,” Niall told us. The boys and Reily were all really excited, but I still didn’t want to drink. I felt too young, I just didn’t feel really ready.

Liam put his arm around my waist before turning to the rest of them. “You lads go, Elysa and I will do something else.”

“Mate, drinking age doesn’t even matter here, it’s Ireland!” Niall cheered.

Liam looked over at me, but we both knew what my answer was.

The boys headed towards the dressing room to change into their clothes, but I tugged on Liam’s sleeve, asking him to stay behind for a moment.

When Liam and I were finally alone, I brought him close to me. “You didn’t have to do that Liam, you could have gone with the rest of them if you wanted.”

“No Ely, I would rather spend the time with you anyway,” he said, kissing me softly. I giggled and felt the blood rushing to my cheeks as I allowed him to keep going for a bit longer than usual. “I love you,” he whispered into my lips as we slowly pulled away.

He finally skipped away into the dressing room with the rest of the boys.

**Liam’s POV**

When I got into the dressing room, the atmosphere was nearly identical to that of the stage we had just left. The lads were laughing and screaming at each other, throwing random things around the room at odd targets.

I stripped out of my clothes quickly before looking for the sweats and jumper that I brought to wear after the show.

“Whoa, slow down there mate. Elysa isn’t even in here!” Louis teased.

I rolled my eyes at him. Ely and I still had not done much past kissing, especially in the past few weeks. I told her time and time again that she was absolutely beautiful, but that didn’t seem to change what she thought of herself. Her voice echoed in my head like a nightmare I couldn’t get away from. She just kept crying over something that I was trying so hard to fix, but I just couldn’t.

Zayn noticed my mood change. “What’s the matter mate, Ely not putting out anymore?” he chuckled. But my eyes began to water.

“Zayn, I think we should stop,” Harry tried to whisper, but I was already pretty upset.

I put my own clothes back on and walked out of the dressing room without saying another word to any of the boys. When I reached Ely, she must have noticed the look on my face and came running in to hug me.

“Are you Liam?” she whispered as she backed off from the hug just a bit. I nodded my head to tell her yes, but my eyes must have told her no because she hugged me once more, placing her head in the very center of my chest. “I love you Liam,” she toldm e sweetly. I backed off of her and wiped away where tears were starting to form in my eyes.

“I have a surprise for you tonight, love.” She looked confused, but I was excited.

The moment we got back to the hotel I ushered to our room. “You’ll want to put on some warm clothes, and maybe even socks, love.” She groaned at the idea of trapping her feat in even a thin piece of fabric, but eventually obliged. “And grab that blanket, will you love?”

**Elysa’s POV**

I was confused as to what sort of surprise Liam had up his sleeve, but I trusted him wholeheartedly and followed his instructions. Once I had changed into warm clothes and even a pair of socks, I grabbed a hotel blanket that he had pointed to and stood in front of him, waiting for my next instruction or clue as to what he had planned.

“Follow me.” He took my hand in his larger, warmer ones and led me outside of our room and into the elevator.

“Where are we going?” But he wouldn’t answer. I whined and complained and begged for at least a hint, but the boy was almost as stubborn as I was. The elevator door opened at the top floor of the hotel and he led me down the hall. We came to a door with a drawing of stairs behind it, and this time I stood my ground. “I am not walking up stairs, Liam.”

He shrugged and grabbed me, carrying me in his arms as he walked up two flights of stairs before reaching a door. Liam slowly pushed it open in front of us as I was caught in the shock of the cold night air.

We walked across the roof to where containers of dirt must have once held a beautiful rooftop garden, and he set me down on my feet. I smiled and kissed him, amazed that he would have even managed to find this place. We spread out the blanket and laid down next to each other, staring up at the stars.

“Why did you take me here, Liam?” I asked him after a few minutes of taking in night sky and noises around us.

“Because I love you. And you love adventure.” He smiled at looked over at me before planting a sweet kiss on my lips.

I curled up into the boy next to me, placing my head on the warm spot of his chest that I had come so accustomed to in the past few months. Continuing to look up at the beautiful night sky dotted with stars, I couldn’t help but think about everything that had happened to me since I met Liam.

“Liam?” I whispered, unsure of his actual state of consciousness. He grunted a bit to let me know he was listening and I continued. “What do you think about when you look at the stars?”

There was a moment of silence. I expected that. It was a loaded question. But when Liam opened his mouth, it was as if he couldn’t be stopped.

“I think every star represents a moment in someone’s life. A good moment maybe, or a bad one, but a moment. Something worth remembering. When I was little, Ruth told me that the bigger the star was, the more important the memory. We were camping in our backyard when she told me that, and ever since I’ve believed it. Every time something worth remembering happens, I look up at the stars and chose one.” He was silent for only a moment. “Nicola told me that was stupid.” I giggled. “What about you?”

“I guess…I guess I think about it the same way. I’ve just never really been able to put it into words before. When I was looking at the stars just now, I thought about Sam, and I thought about my parents, and I thought about Zach, and I even thought about Sage. All the moments with those people that changed my life in some way. And now I guess I’m still trying to figure out which star reminds me most of you.”

I could feel his heavy, slowing breath through his chest. No words were needed in this moment any longer, we both knew what the other was feeling. A gust of wind blew through my hair and I shivered, snuggling in even closer with Liam. He put his arms around me and held me in tight, trying his best to keep me warm.

“I love you Elysa. I really do. And one of those stars up there is a bad memory. It’s the memory of every time you’ve ever cried. I don’t like it when that happens Ely.” I felt weak at his words. I never meant to hurt someone else with my own feelings.

“I’m so sorry Liam.”

“Don’t be,” he told me sweetly, kissing my head. “Don’t be sorry, be silly. You’re a strong girl and it hurts me when you let little things get to you.” I turned up to look at him and he kissed me sweetly. “Come on, it’s cold out here,” he said, before sitting up and taking me in his arms once more to head down the stairs.

“Are you sure I’m not too heavy?”

He let out a disappointed sigh. “Don’t say these things Elysa. If you were too heavy, I wouldn’t be carrying you, would i?”

“I guess not.” He was right.

I held onto him tighter as I nuzzled my head into his neck, trying to save all the warmth we each had to offer. Even after we got down the stairs, and into the elevator, he continued to hold me. He carried me all the way back to the room and managed to open the door without dropping me. He carefully placed me on the bed and sat down beside me.

I stared up into his eyes. I knew what he wanted to do, but I just wasn’t sure I could let myself go right then. He leaned in to kiss me deeply, and I allowed him to, but the moment I felt his hands exploring my body I pulled away.

“Babe, don’t do that.” He told me. But I gave him the worried and insecure look that I was getting so good at making. “Ok Ely. Maybe tomorrow?” he asked me. I shook my head timidly. Maybe he was right, maybe there was nothing to be insecure about. But I was insecure, and didn’t want to let my body go at that moment.

I lifted the blankets up over our bodies as Liam cuddled in close with me. I let him hold me tight as we each drifted off into sleep.

 

 


	19. Chapter 18

**Elysa’s POV**

We woke up the next morning in Ireland still, but I fell asleep in the car after packing up our stuff and the next thing I remember is arriving in Australia. I must have slept for hours on the plane ride getting here. The constant travel had begun to wear me out. Although I never in my life would have been able to see the places that I was now complaining about going to.

Still groggy, I walked off the plane, almost forgetting my small carry-on bag. Luckily, Liam remembered it and handed it to me. I smiled at him, thanking him, and he took my hand in his as we made our way through the terminal. 

“I’m so tired, Liam,” I whispered to him as we walked through some paparazzi.

“It’s ok Ely; we can sleep as soon as we get to the hotel.” I didn’t want to sleep though; I wanted to go on an adventure. We were in Australia and sleeping felt like such a waste.

“Buy me some caffeine? Please?” He smiled and chucked as I begged him sweetly. We passed by a Starbucks stand in the airport and I nudged him again.

“Can you wait until we get to the hotel?” I sighed and agreed.

We walked all too slowly to the car, but the moment all seven of us were inside it began to move. I was resting my head lazily on Liam’s chest, trying hard not to let the movement of the vehicle lull me to sleep when I heard Louis’ voice.

“Ok. So I have a plan for today,” He said cheerfully. I looked over to Liam, who was just as skeptical as I was. “We’re in Australia, so we are going to go surfing. Even you Ely, we’re all learning, deal?” The boys looked around at each other in agreement, even Liam agreed to the idea.

“Fine, but only if we can stop at Starbucks first!” I bargained to him. He laughed, but we made our way there.

**Liam’s POV**

To be honest, I was glad that Louis had come up with this plan for the day. Maybe after a day of fun, Elysa would loosen up. She kept trying to stop me when I wanted to do anything further than just kissing her, but I was determined to change that. I loved her too much to not be able to show her in every way possible. Not only that, but her constant stress was worrying me. I wanted her to be having fun on this trip, not worrying about anything that might be going wrong back home, or here, or anywhere.

By the time we got to the beach, Elysa was all hyped up on caffeine. It was hilarious to be honest.  She seemed so much happier than the night before, and it honestly got my hopes up. Although she had preemptively told me that she was insisting on wearing an extra T-shirt over her bathing suit, the surfing instructor had us all wear full body suits.

“It’s so tight Liam…” she said worriedly. I had to agree, it was tight and I could see every inch of her body. It was amazing. It just made me want her even more, as if that was even possible.

“It’s ok love, you look…amazing.” She blushed at my words that had somehow given her a tiny burst of confidence as we took to the water.

Just watching her run down the beach sent the blood flowing strangely through my body. I noticed quickly and followed her, hoping the water would cover me up from any embarrassment. I couldn’t help it though. She was such a beautiful girl, and in that skin tight suit…my mind went wild.

As for the surfing itself, Elysa was a natural. Our instructor explained things very well and she got up on the first small wave we saw. Zayn, Louis and Niall weren’t nearly as good as she was. I sat back and watched as she had a giant smile spread across her face. While three of the boys constantly plummeted into the ocean, Harry sat on his board beside me and Elysa showed us all how it was supposed to be done.

“Come on Liam! It’s not that hard!” She called to me from atop her board while riding the biggest wave she had been able to catch so far.

“You’re only saying that because you’re from California!” I teased her, even though I knew she lived nowhere near the beach. She stuck her tongue out at me and I laughed to Harry who was watching her beside me still.

“She’s so fit, mate,” he whispered to me, once she was a safe distance down. I couldn’t help but get a bit jealous but I had to remind myself that Harry wasn’t going to make a move.

“Yeah,” I nodded.

“She putting out now?” he asked. I was slightly appalled that he would ask so upfront. Then again, it was Harry, the cheekiest boy I had ever met in my entire life.

“Not really, but that’s ok. I don’t want to push her. I just wish I could keep showing her how much I love her…” I trailed off at the end as Harry giggled.

“Ugh, why are you the perfect boyfriend Liam?” he commented. I sneered, knowing there was no way this was true. I was constantly worried about Harry, and even Zach, falling for her.  Because she was dating me, she wasn’t able to go to normal school, and I was just as worried about her education as she was. There was no way you could call me the perfect boyfriend.

Just then, Elysa wiped out on a wave, screaming. She didn’t scream often, so I knew something was immediately wrong. I shouted at the lads to help me get to her. She had already washed up onto the beach and I could hear my heart beating faster than normal.

“ELYSA!” I shouted as I ran up to her.

She shifted a little bit, and her eyes fluttered open. “I’m ok Liam,” she said with a little chuckle. “I’m not _that_ good at this surfing thing.” She continued laugh, but I was still worried.

“We’re going back to the hotel now,” I decided. Elysa looked upset and refused to move, so I picked her up and carried her back to where we had rented the surfboards and body suits from. I put her back down on her feet and kissed her sweetly on the lips. “Just stop scaring me, ok?” she nodded her head and giggled as she went into a small room to change.

**Elysa’s POV**

Honestly, I think I may have hurt my leg pretty badly, but I didn’t want to get in the way of the boys’ tour, so I just sort of sucked it up. I changed slowly out of my body suit in the small room, being careful not to put too much weight on the sore leg. I bit my lip to keep from screaming in pain.

I heard a knock at the door. “Elysa, are you ok?” Liam asked me. I smiled, he cared about me so much, I had to remember not to take it for granted.

“Yes, I’m..ow…fine,” I lied through my teeth, and I was horrible at it.

“Let me come in for a second Ely.”

I assumed he was just trying to make sure I was ok, so I tried to talk him out of it. “I’m not dressed yet, hang on.” I could see his bouncing leg under the door signaling that he was inpatient and quickened my pace. “ok,” I said, as I unlocked the door. I opened it, while still standing behind it so that no one else could see me. I still wanted to put on another layer of clothing before walking outside.

When I closed the door behind Liam, his face told me everything that he was thinking. Before I had a chance to say anything his lips crashed down onto mine. They worked together in perfect sync, as always, and I smiled before pulling away.

“Why are you doing this now?” I asked him honestly.

“Because,” he started, his eyes filled with lust and love, “I love you.” I smiled and continued to kiss him, but I knew we couldn’t go any further, not here, not now.

“We can’t do this here Liam,” I giggled as I pushed him away and reached for my jacket.

He rolled his eyes out of pain but agreement and understanding as well. Being the sensible boy that he was, he understood that we couldn’t do this in public. After I had gotten all of my clothes back on, even put on a pair of shoes, he opened the dressing room door. Harry was standing right outside, staring at us.

“Bow chicka bow wow” he teased. I rolled me eyes and Liam hit him playfully on the arm.

I took a few steps towards the door of the small shop but I had to stop. My leg was in far too much pain.

“Are you ok babe?” Liam asked me. I nodded my head while biting down hard on my lip. I was determined not to let anything I did get in the way of his tour.

“No you aren’t. Ely, did you hurt your leg when you fell back there?” Louis asked me from a few feet away. I shook my head no, but my eyes and body clearly told him yes.

“You’re going to the doctor,” Liam said, as he bent down to pick me up.

“No, I can’t do anything to change your schedule. I don’t want to get in the way of the tour!!!” I whined at all of the boys. But it was no use, they were all in agreement that I was too damaged to ignore. “Can we at least wait until after the show tonight? I don’t want y’all to end up being late.”

Liam looked over at the other boys and they reluctantly agreed, while simultaneously chuckling at my use of the word ‘y’all’.

“But the moment we get off the stage, we’re taking you to the hospital.” Liam stood his ground firmly, and agreed. All I would have to do now was fake my way through the evening. This leg would heal itself.

The show went really well. The audience was great and Reily couldn’t stop watching Niall. I couldn’t help but think that something must have happened between the two of them at that pub in Ireland, but I was too embarrassed to ask.

When Liam ran off of the stage, he came straight towards me, but not with the giant smile he usually had. He looked worried and scared, and I knew immediately that this was about my leg.

“Ely, we’re taking you to the hospital,” he told me softly, still looking into my eyes. But I looked away from him, taking a deep breath.

“No Liam, really, I’m fine.”

I could tell that he didn’t want to believe me, but he had to.

“If it still hurts in a few days we can go, but I promise, I’m fine.” I bite my lip and looked deep into his eyes, begging for him to believe me.  He finally nodded his head before walking slowly to the dressing room, his fingers lingering on the tips of my own.

I took a deep breath as I sat down, the pain in my shin slowly subsiding as the weight was released from it. Just then, Paul walked over to me, looking slightly worried.

“Elysa, do you have a hospital preference?” he asked me. I took a deep breath before answering him.

“I just talked to Liam. My leg feels totally fine now. If it hurts again I’ll let y’all know.” I put a smile on my face, trying to fake my way through one more attempt to get me to the doctor.

Paul went down on his knees in front of me and took my hand in his. He took a deep breath before looking up at me and speaking softly. “I know you don’t want to get in the way. But you being on this tour means that you are my responsibility. I can’t make you go to the hospital now, but know that it would _not_ get in the boys’ way, ok?”

I looked at him and nodded to let him know I had understood. I decided then that if I _was_ to go to the hospital, I would talk to Paul about it first, not Liam or the other boys. He understood that I didn’t want to get in the way.

After that, the boys came out of their dressing room, wearing the comfortable clothing that they had arrived in. I smiled at all of them, they were radiating with that special “after concert glow” that I had begun to recognize. It made all of the boys look so beautiful and amazing in every single way.

Liam took my hand in his and we walked out back to the car. I squeezed him a little harder than usual to cope with the pain in my leg, but I tried to pass it off as a sign of affection. This continued once we arrived at the hotel and had to walk through it to get to our room. But when we were finally there, went straight to sit on the bed.

“Ugh, I _have_ to take this bra off…” I complained to myself, out loud. Liam chuckled at my bluntness and came to sit next to me.

“Listen Ely,” he started, “I know you’ve been feeling…insecure…” I looked away from him. I knew where this conversation was going. “I just really don’t want you to, love. And I want to be able to continue showing you how much I love you, and the physical stuff is part of that.” I still refused to look him in the eyes, but he took the initiative to tilt my chin up to face him.

The moment our eyes were connected, mine began to water. “I just can’t Liam.” I told him.

“Yes you can,” he whispered before sweetly kissing me. “I’ll help you and everything will be ok.” I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes again. They were comforting and calming, but also showed what his intentions were going to be.

“Ok…” I breathed quietly.

Liam smiled and kissed me again, and again, and again. He was being sweet even though we both knew where this was going.

“You said you wanted to take that bra off?” he asked me while his lips were still nearly touching mine. I nodded my head. “I’ll help you with that, too.”

His hands reached around my back and he swiftly unclasped my bra. I shook, feeling a bit revealed, even though I was still wearing my shirt. He kissed me again and whispered that he loved me, and I loosened up a bit.

Our lips crashed down onto each other’s quickly after that. I felt the fireworks go off in my mind that told me what we were doing was right. I smiled into his lips and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into my mouth. He moved it around skillfully as I moved my hands up and down his toned torso. He took that as a signal and while only breaking our contact for a second removed his shirt.

I looked at his chest and just marveled at it before I would let his lips reconnect with mine. He smiled, proud of himself that he was able to make me feel this way. As his lips once again pressed to mine, he used his hand in the small of my back to lay us down on the bed. I smiled again, and so did he.

The moment was amazing. I was ready to let myself go completely. I realized what he meant once again about showing me how much he loved me. I felt so safe in his gentle hands, so loved, and so in love with his own body.

Liam slid his hands up under my shirt and began to remove it. I held my breath as he lifted it over my head, taking the loose bra with it. He could see that I was a bit nervous, and tried to help by kissing my lips sweetly again. I looked into his eyes lovingly to let him know that it had helped.

He dipped his head down to my breasts and began to kiss them. I giggled at the unusual feeling of contact on the sensitive skin, but he pursued. Eventually, the feeling no longer merited a giggle, but a moan. I bit my lip, trying hard not to let it out, but Liam noticed.

“It’s ok Ely, let it out. Tell me what you think,” he said, breathing air onto my now hard nipples. He began sucking and kissing again, and this time I relaxed and let the pleasure come out in the form of a moan. I could feel him smile into my soft skin and I giggled, intertwining my fingers with his beautiful brown hair.

When Liam felt that he had completed his task, he began to kiss down my abdomen. Before reaching the waistband of my leggings, he looked up at me.

“Oh,” I said, realizing that I should probably find a way to reciprocate any pleasure that he was giving me. “do you want me to…?”

“No,” he chuckled a bit, “I just wanted to make sure it was ok to keep going.”

I smiled down at him and bit my lip while nodding for him to continue. He kissed above the elastic of my leggings before beginning to pull them down. I smiled at him, knowing what was soon to come. The cold air hit my skin and sent a chill down my spine, my movement causing Liam to smile.

He breathed hot air through my panties that had quickly become soaked, and began to separate my legs. My shiver this time was a combination of pleasure and pain, as my shin began to feel pressure on it. Liam didn’t notice the pain, only the pleasure and continued rubbing from outside of the thin cloth.

He slowly hooked his fingers inside of the elastic strip of my panties and began to pull them down. But when they reached my shins, he stopped. I swallowed hard, realizing there must be a bruise of some sort that he was seeing. And I knew I was right when he softly touched the sore spot, effectively sending a sharp pain through my body.

My eyes began to water and he looked up, knowing that I was lying before. “Elysa, we’re going to the hospital,” he said definitively. I nodded my head, still biting my lip out of pain. “I’ll get you some fresh clothes.”

Liam walked to where my suitcase had already been made a mess and picked out comfortable clothes for me to wear. He walked back over and helped me put on the new pair of underwear and sweats, and handed me a sports bra and t-shirt.

“I just gotta use the bathroom real quick, text Harry, would ya?” I knew what he was doing in the bathroom, probably taking care of some business to finish off what he had started.  I felt bad, knowing that he wanted this for so long and now that I was ok with it I was too injured to provide it to him.  Still, I slipped on the sports bra and t-shirt and texted Harry.

_Liam is taking me to the hospital. He said I should let you know._

Just as Liam exited the bathroom, I heard a knock at the door. He went over and opened it to find all the boys and Paul. I immediately felt guilty for probably getting all of them out of bed, but when the boys sat down on the bed next to me and smiled comfortingly, I knew that they had probably been awake this entire time anyway.

As Liam and Louis were helping move me to the end of the bed so that Liam could carry me down the car, I noticed a look on Harry’s face. I swiftly became embarrassed as I knew the face meant that he had probably smelled mine and Liam’s sent in the air from just moments before they walked through the door. I looked at him in a way to tell him not to say anything, and surprisingly, he understood.

When we got to the car, Paul began to ask what insurance I had. Luckily, before I could say anything about the state of my custody, Liam chimed in, telling him to take me where he would take him. I looked at Liam, both thanking him for speaking up and feeling badly that he was probably going to be paying for these hospital costs. He pulled me in closer to him, stroking my arm to relax me.

I was surprised at how in the hospital we were assigned a room almost immediately. Other times I had been in the emergency room we had to wait for one to open up, but I guess that was the benefit of being with a celebrity who could cause chaos in a place that really wasn’t suited for it. They gave me a wheel chair and Liam pushed me down a hall that smelled of anti-septic before finally turning into a small room with decorations clearly intended for little kids. “It’s because I’m not 18 yet, isn’t it?” I asked the nurse who led us to the room. She nodded her head and chuckled a bit.

“Still pediatrics, I’m sorry to say,” she said in her Australian accent.

She stood in the doorway as Liam and Louis lifted me out of the chair. Niall pulled back the blankets on the hospital bed and I was placed down. I took a deep breath, taking in my surroundings and the fact that this tiny room was now filled with 8 people.

“Another nurse will be in shortly to ask you some questions. You will probably need an x-ray.” She turned to the boys and Paul before continuing, “Now usually we don’t allow friends, only family.” Liam and Paul got up and stopped her right there, leading her out of the door to explain my situation a little more clearly.

The other boys stayed in the room with me while they spoke. It was silent and awkward, as they really didn’t fully understand my family situation like Liam, and apparently Paul, did. They looked towards me with some pity, and I playfully told them to stop before the door opened again, and Liam and Paul returned.

“So she said we could stay,” Liam began to explain, “but it’s a small room so she recommended that some of us sit in the little room down the hall with chairs.” The boys all looked around at each other, clearly not wanting to move.

“I think we’ll all be cozy in here,” Louis finally answered. I giggled, thanking the boys.

The rest of that night was a blur. I would drift off to sleep only to be awoken by a nurse or doctor asking me the same few sets of questions. The boys were in various stages of alertness as well, except for Liam who always seemed to be completely conscious when my eyes were opened. They took an x-ray of my leg, but I even fell asleep during that. The last thing I remember was a nurse pushing my chair into a room on a different floor, explaining that they wanted me to sleep and rest.

**Liam’s POV**

I sat impatiently as doctors and nurses walked in and out of the small hospital room this morning. They came accustomed to asking me if she had woken up at all yet, and I had come accustomed to answering them negatively. The other boys and Paul had fallen asleep some time ago, leaving me alone in a room full of bodies. Occasionally the doctor or nurse would ask if some random relative was allowed to come see Elysa, but we both knew it was just a paparazzo trying to sneak in.

Just as I was finally allowing my eye lids to droop after being awake for at least two full days, I noticed Elysa’s flutter open. She looked around at the sleeping boys around her with an expressionless face before finally making eye contact with me and smiling. I walked over and placed a small kiss on her lips.

“Am I ok?” She asked me in a whisper. I responded similarly letting her know that they wouldn’t actually tell me anything until she was awake since I had no legal relationship with her. They wouldn’t even talk to Paul. “So get them and ask,” she ordered me impatiently. I smiled as I opened up the door and told the first nurse I saw that she had finally awoken.

I walked back into the room to see Ely slowly sitting up and noticing the soft cast that had been placed on her lower leg. I stayed silent for a moment to allow for her to investigate it herself, but she soon looked up at me, waiting for an explanation. I shrugged, as I really didn’t have much information to share with her.

“They put that on you a few hours after your x-rays last night, but they didn’t tell me anything,” I informed her. I hadn’t been trying to muffle my voice anymore, and some of the lads began to stir.

I saw as Louis’ eyes began to open and his infectious smile spread to Ely. She looked back to me and I made my way over to her bed, sitting on the edge of it and putting my arm somewhat around her.

“How late were you up, Lou?” She asked him from the bed. He chuckled to himself, looking up at the clock.

“Not sure, maybe got three or four hours of sleep?”

The other lads began to rise as their cloudy eyes filled the room. Harry shook Paul awake and everyone readied themselves to hear the news from a doctor. When one finally walked into the small room, it was silent.

She walked over to the bed and took my seat so she could speak directly to Elysa. “We reviewed your x-rays last night and found that you only bruised your right tibia. We’ve given you this soft cast. Normally I would require you to stay here for at least one more night, but I understand you are in a very unique situation, so we are going to allow you to travel under the condition that you wear this all the time for the next three weeks. After that, you should see a doctor wherever you are for further instruction. It should heal up just fine.” She stopped and looked over at the lads and I, and paused when she made eye contact with Paul. “Who would you like to be in charge of your medical records, since after all you are still a minor?”

Elysa, Paul, and I all shared slightly confused glances with each other. “Could you give us a couple of minutes to figure that out?” she asked the doctor sweetly.

“Of course honey, I’ll come back in with your release papers and you can let me know who should sign them.” And she walked out.

It was silent and awkward. My first thought was that I should sign the papers, but after realizing that it would make me a partial guardian, I decided against it. “I think maybe Paul should sign it? And you might want to at least call Sam to let him know what happened?” I suggested to Elysa. It continued to be silent and awkward, but Paul nodded his head in agreement, and Elysa did not object.

As we sat there, waiting for the doctor to come back with forms, the other lads became more alert and aware of what was going on around them. Their eyes filled back with color as a friendly rumble of conversation finally was introduced.

**Elysa’s POV**

After the boys helped me in and out of the car, and Liam assisted in packing up my suitcase, we made our way to the airport. The next sets of shows were going to be in America, and I was excited to say the least. This meant familiar accents, food, geography, everything. It even meant driving on the correct side of the road for once.

After arriving in New York, I sat in the car with Liam and the boys on our way to the next hotel. I was totally taken up in Liam’s eyes as our hands were tangled together and the hum of the large car pushed all other thoughts out of my mind.

Until Harry randomly put a thought to words. “Why do you Americans drive on the right side of the road?” And I think that’s when it hit, because that’s when my eyes began to water. I missed driving so much. And although for most people, driving is a chore, for me, it was the one thing that could remind me that I was my own person, because no one else had control of that car besides me. And now that I was finally in America, where I could legally drive, there was a soft cast on my foot.

“How long are we in America for?” I asked Liam.

He thought to himself before answering me. “About a month and half, I believe. Management set up show dates in most of the major cities, I reckon. Why?”

I smiled to myself and responded cheerfully, “Because by the time we get to California, I should be able to drive again!”

The other boys heard and understood my excitement as we pulled up to a fancy hotel. When the car stopped, Paul got out first. He opened the car door allowing Zayn, Harry, and Louis to get out first. The three walked up to the large hotel doors and greeted fans with pictures and autographs. Meanwhile, Niall and Liam grabbed my crutches out of the trunk of the car and helped me out.

I wasn’t very confident on the crutches yet, and barely really knew how to use them. But I insisted on trying to move myself and didn’t want Liam to carry me. I wasn’t helpless, and I wanted to make sure that he, and the rest of the boys, and Paul, and any random fans, knew that.

I finally managed to move myself a few feet forward and Niall walked ahead, following in the same greeting path that the other boys had left. Liam stayed with me, helping me balance on the strange poles that dug into my armpits, and Paul followed slowly behind us.

After confirming to Liam that I was fine, he was finally able to take a breath. It took a while, but we finally made it inside. I sat down on a large comfortable chair in the lobby as the boys checked in. Niall was finished first for some reason, and walked over to keep me company.

“How are ya doin, Ely?” He asked in a thick Irish slur.

“You know, just learning how to walk again, you?” I joked. He laughed at my horrible sense of humor and I continued to talk to him. “How much does Liam talk to y’all about…him and me…and like….”

Niall cut me off, he knew what I was really asking. “Not much. I mean, er, when he had plans, sometimes he tells us. And like, when they don’t…when ya don’t….” This time I stopped him.

“Did he tell you how he convinced me to go to the hospital?” Niall shook his head indicating that he did not. “Oh, well, I’m not sure why I’m telling you this. But we were in bed, and you know how I’ve been really insecure lately?” This time his head nod indicated a positive response. “Well he had kind of helped me get past that. I’m really mad because this got in the way of finally, well, never mind.” I trailed off and focused my attention at Liam, who was making his way from the counter over towards me. “Sorry, you probably didn’t need to know that,” I said to Niall, before trying to get out of the chair.

“No, no,” he told me, as he helped me up by the arm and handed me my crutches, “You can talk to me any time.” I looked into his crystal blue eyes and smiled to thank him as Liam approached us.

“Ready, Ely?” He asked. He started to take my hand like he usually would have before remembering that I needed it to walk now. He put his own back into his pocket as he helped me balance on my one good leg.

“Yup,” I assured him. And with a smile he led me towards the elevator. “Where are our bags?” I usually insisted on carrying my own bag into the hotel. I wasn’t part of the band so I didn’t believe that I should get their treatment and have everything done for me.

“Paul’s taking care of it. He figured you would need help.” I smiled as I accepted the fact that I no longer could do certain things for myself, and followed Liam and Niall to the elevator where the rest of the boys were waiting for us.

 


	20. Chapter 19

**Elysa’s POV**

I woke up in the morning with a giant smile on my face. It might be 3 am, but it was all ok because I was lying next to the boy of my dreams. His hand flopped over to turn off the alarm and he turned back to face me and move some hair out of my still sleepy face. His lips made contact with mine and I savored the moment as I continued my smile into his.

“We need to get going, the Today show is-“

Instantly, lips were attached to mine again. I giggled into Liam’s mouth before realizing what his true intent was.

“We don’t need to meet the lads downstairs for another hour,” he whispered lowly into my lips. I hummed and smiled, trying to hide my excitement for what was to come.

“So you’re making me lose sleep?” I teased him with a whisper, my lips nearly touching his but not quite.

“This is worth it though, love.” I smiled, as I knew he was right.

I crashed my lips forward onto his again, closing the gap between our bodies physically, but also our minds. He quickly took the opportunity to slip his tongue into my mouth, and I allowed it. I had finally figured out how to fight for dominance into a kiss, but he still won control, and that was ok.

Liam’s hands rubbed up and down my back, forcing my shirt nearly off with that simple motion. But it stayed put, my hands being connected to Liam’s torso. I finally let go, letting him remove my shirt fully, and then his, before crashing back down, missing the feeling of his lips in connection to mine.

“I love you so much,” he nearly groaned into my mouth. I giggled a bit as I continued, focused on showing him how much everything he had done for me meant.

Liam’s hands reached down to my loosely fitting pajama pants, but I swatted him away. He looked at me questioningly before I told him what I had been thinking all along.

“You’ve done so much for me, I want to do something special for you.” A cheeky smile appeared on his face as his eyes filled with lust. I smiled as I moved his hands back to his own pants, and began to pull those down.

“You don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to do Ely,” he told me, breaking from his lustful intentions for only a moment for me to assure him that this is what I wanted.

“Maybe just help me a little, but I want this, and I know you do too.”

He smiled, I was right. Liam helped me pull his pants down and he was left in only his boxers, a thin layer of fabric separating me from his large member. I rubbed it in my hand through the thin fabric as I looked directly into his eyes. The look on his face told me that what I was doing was right.

I kissed down his chest until I reached the hem of the fabric that I was beginning to despise. When I got there, I looked up at Liam, took the elastic band between my teeth, and gently pulled down. I looked up at him again, making sure I was doing alright. He smiled as he just watched me work, and I finally got the boxers off.

I looked down at his large erection, which had slapped up to his stomach. I rubbed it lightly like I would any other time, but Liam saw with my nerves what was going to happen. He began to hum the tune of the song Whistle, and I couldn’t help but giggle.

I did as the song instructed and put my lips together. I came real close and kissed his tip before blowing some air through the small part in my mouth. His face transformed and I knew I was doing everything right. I suddenly became more confident as I licked up the length of his long shaft.

I felt him shudder beneath my touch; a satisfying feeling filling me. I smiled as I continued to lick, building the confidence to do what I had been worried about doing. Eventually, I took about half of his thick erection in my mouth. I was scared to gag as my head moved back and forth. Liam put his hand in my hair as his eyes and head rolled back, filling with the feeling of pleasure.

I woke up for the second time that morning. I was in Liam’s arms with nothing covering either of our tops, and he was entirely exposed to me. I smiled as he kissed my forehead, turning off the second alarm.

“Wake up love,” he whispered to me. My eyes began to flutter open and I felt him kissing me again. “I love you,” he spoke. .

“I love you too, Liam,” I said.

The fact that I was actually awake at this hour was crazy. But as I looked up into Liam’s eyes, I knew it was worth it. I remembered how only an hour ago I had been able to give him a special moment, and that alone made me happy. The fact that I was able to make him feel as great as he is able to make me feel gave me the biggest smile.

“Come on love, we have to go on the Today show,” he whispered. I yawned and just stared up into his sparkling eyes.

“Can I just go back to sleep?” I whined as I rolled around a bit and covered myself in blankets as well as Liam’s arms.

He laughed a bit, “no, I need you there Ely. You’re good luck,” he leaned over and kissed me again and I giggled.

Just then, we heard a knock at the door. Liam and I both simultaneously groaned as he shouted in the sound’s direction and rolled out of bed. I sat up to see who it was as he opened the door and it was Paul. I smiled and waved before they spoke.

“The Today show wanted to talk to Elysa today too, so the stylist wanted to get some ideas.” We were both dumbstruck. Me? Why would they want to talk to me?

“Can you just look at pictures and stuff? We just woke up,” Liam was doing a great job of pushing back his shock. Paul nodded and he closed the door, but the moment Liam turned around I saw the shocked look on his face.

“I can’t do this Liam,” I told him in a scared whisper. He came down and sat beside me, rubbing my back. There was nothing he could really say. Once something like this was decided, there was almost no way of turning it around.

**Liam’s POV**

So far, the Today show was going pretty well. They asked the lads and me a lot of the same questions as always, and we were set to perform our latest single in just a few minutes after a commercial when one of the show’s hosts walked over to Elysa.

“So, are you ready?” she asked in an annoyingly cheerful voice. Elysa looked over at me and I wrapped my arms around her. I knew this was going to be difficult. She was just a regular girl, and asking her to on air at such a big show was insane.

“I guess,” she said with a deep breath. “But why do y’all wanna interview me anyway?”

The lady gave a small chuckle. “We’ve heard some rumors lately that you might want to respond to. And I don’t think you realize how much young girls look up to you!” Elysa blushed and looked up at me. I felt a sense of pride at the thought that others looked up to her and appreciated her amazing qualities almost as much as I did. But I couldn’t keep myself from wondering about what rumors there might be, and why they wouldn’t just ask me about them.

I watched as Ely walked out onto the set and sat down on the couch. The situated her and talked a bit of small talk until we went on another part of the set to perform. The entire time I was watching Elysa, worried about what they might ask her and what she might say, but I had to keep my hopes up.

We finished and I walked over to Ely and kissed her softly on the lips. “Good luck, you will be amazing, love,” I whispered to her. She giggled as I walked off set and they started asking her questions.

“Welcome back! Here we have Elysa, Liam Payne’s latest girl.” She spoke directly to the camera in a way that sort of scared me before turning to actually face Ely. “So, Elysa, girls all around the world look up to you now. Being a Junior in high school and traveling so much, what do you think that says about how much you care, or don’t care, about school? Are you afraid that being with Liam is going to ruin your future education?”

Elysa looked nervous, and she looked over at me. I smiled encouragingly and she turned back to face the lady.

“Actually,” Elysa started, more calmly than I expected, “my school counselor set me up on an independent study program because paparazzi were crowding my school and it wasn’t safe for me or other people. Liam only decided to take me on tour after that happened. We’ve found the most amazing tutor and I’ve passed all my online tests with flying colors.”

“So no worries about college?”

“Everyone is worried about college! But all the boys and their management have been really supportive of my studying. School comes first and they all not only respect that, but encourage it, and the thought that they would be ruining my future in any way is ridiculous.” She looked over at me and smiled for confirmation. I took a deep breath, she had done amazing.

“Ok then.” The lady seemed disappointed with the response that she had earned, but I was proud of how well Elysa was doing. “Well, is it difficult being in a relationship with one of the most famous boys in the world?” she asked.

 “Not at all. If it was difficult, I wouldn’t be in the relationship. Liam makes everything so easy.” She was surprisingly confident.

The lady across from her nodded before adding, “Even with all the girls screaming all the time?”

The lads and I chuckled a bit, as did Elysa before answering. “I mean, the noise sucks. He’s always nice to his fans and they don’t really get in the way.”

The expression of the lady asking questions seemed to change. “So the fans were not the reason for your recent injury?” She pointed towards Elysa’s cast.

“No?” She answered questioningly. Elysa looked over to me as if to ask, but I had no idea why they would ask her this either.

“So did Liam do this to you then?”

“NO!” She screamed. My face began to get hot and I clenched my fists. The lads had to hold me back a bit as I just could not stay still while someone was accusing me of this to the girl I loved. I would never hurt her.

“Are you sure?” she led on.

“Absolutely not! I fell when we were surfing in Australia! Liam did nothing to me. I fell and he was more worried than I was. He had to convince me to go to the hospital!” I could tell that anger and rage was starting to build up in her as well.

“This has to stop,” I whispered to Harry. He nodded, but the next question had already come.

“What does your family think of all of this?” And with that, I could see her beginning to break down. Everything must have been flooding her, Sam, her parents, everything. I saw as her breath caught in her throat and she sniffled a bit. She couldn’t answer.

“I uh…they um…” she stuttered.

“So they aren’t very supportive of your new life style? Picking up and leaving them all behind in California when you’re still so young?” She badgered.

I couldn’t handle it anymore. Ely was breaking and hurting and the world didn’t need to know these things about her family. I turned to Harry and he nodded quickly. I ran in and picked Elysa up off of the couch and ran off of the set. There was shouting everywhere. I had just taken her out of a live interview. Management was upset, but I didn’t care. I just wanted Elysa to feel alright.

I ran as far and as fast as I could with Elysa in my arms. The shouting behind us was getting louder for a while, but I heard Harry as he tried to push the management and TV crew off. I saw as the tears started falling down Elysa’s face and she sniffled up what she could.

“It’s ok, Ely, it’s going to be ok,” I told her in a low voice.

I was running out of breath from carrying her while she had a cast on, but we eventually made it outside. There were still people everywhere, so I rushed around the corner to the car that was waiting to take us back to the hotel after the interview. When we got there, there was a driver sitting in the front.

“Please, we need some space!” I shouted at him, and he left the space immediately. I looked down at the most beautiful girl in the world, seeing that she was broken down completely. I sat her next to me and rubbed her back, but she just sank back into my chest. I shushed her as I tried to comfort her, but I didn’t know what to say.

“I love you Liam,” were the first real words to come out of her mouth.

“I know Elysa, I love you too.” I watched as she took a few deep breaths before her broken eyes looked up at me. “Every time I think I’ll never see you more broken, you surprise me,” I said to her. It was meant to lighten the mood, but I could see that it had done the opposite.

“I’m sorry Liam. I’m sorry for ruining everything. I’m sorry for making your life so complicated. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” she cried into me. I continued to rub her back as my own eyes began to water.

“Don’t be sorry, love. You have made my life a million times more amazing since you sent that letter.” She looked up at me as her crying subsided into hiccups. Her eyes sparkling slightly from the tears that had previously drowned them out. I brushed some hair out of her face, and kissed her forehead. “I promise. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you I love you I love you. You told that lady that I make things easier for you? Well you’ve made things easier for me.”

“Really?” she asked in a broken voice.

“Really.” I responded confidently.

We spent a few more moments in the solitude of the car, but soon the rest of the boys, management, and the Today Show crew appeared. Paparazzi were everywhere asking for a comment on what had happened. I was appalled, could they not see something was wrong?

The boys quickly loaded themselves into the car and Paul took the driver’s seat. We sat there in silence for a few moments, hoping that the paparazzi would just go away on their own. But they didn’t. And soon the screaming girls were finding our location as well.

Paul looked back at Ely, she looked at me, and I nodded my head to Paul. The car started moving and Ely buried her face into my chest again. I continued to rub her back and arm, trying to comfort her. But it was difficult.

The silence continued for about five minutes until Paul pulled into a random parking garage. He drove down to the bottom floor and parked in the very back so we would at least have some time before the paparazzi or fans found us. I took a deep breath, not exactly sure what I should so or do.

Paul opened the door and walked out of the car. Louis, Niall, Harry, and Zayn followed him without a word and it was just Ely and I again.

“Thanks for carrying me out….” She said to me while looking away. She seemed embarrassed, but I wouldn’t have it. I used my finger to turn her face back to me.

“I love you Elysa. I really do. I just want you to be ok.” There was a moment of silence. . I had no idea what was going to happen the rest of the day, but I could only assume that there was more promo before the show tonight. “If you want to just stay at the hotel tonight, I totally understand.”

She looked up at me. I knew she must have thought it was strange. I usually insisted on bringing her everywhere with me that I could. “Are you sure?” she asked me.

I looked back at her, trying to show how sincere I truly was. ““I’m positive. Get your computer out and Skype with Zach, I know you want to. And I’ll have some good movies sent to the room.” I smiled and kissed her again, and she giggled a bit in response.

“I love you Liam,”

“I love you more, Elysa.”

The boys and I were out and semi exploring the city of New York. We were in Time Square, but my mind was back with Elysa in the hotel. I shouldn’t have woken her up early this morning, the lack of sleep only built up on her making things more and more difficult to handle. As I stood in the middle of one of the busiest places I had ever seen in my entire life, I couldn’t help but worry about Elysa feeling lonely back in the hotel room by herself.

“Mate look, it’s us!” Niall tapped on my shoulder, ecstatic at seeing our own faces on a huge billboard here in New York. I smiled and chuckled a bit. It was an old picture that they had chosen, but it was cool never the less. “HAH! Your hair!” he started to laugh. The picture was old enough that it had my hair styled the way it was about two hairstyles ago. I couldn’t help but laugh along with him.

“There’s the Liam we missed!” Zayn shouted from a few feet away, simply because it was so loud. “Don’t worry about Ely, she’ll be fine in the hotel. Have fun, we’re in New York!” He tried to put on a New York accent at the end of his sentence, but it failed miserably, pulling the lads and I into insane laughter.

“Excuse me? Liam? Can I have a picture?” I heard a small, shy voice next to me say.

“Of course!” I responded quickly before even turning around. But once I did, I couldn’t help but smile. It was a small girl, maybe about 10 years old. She looked very shy and her parents were a few feet away smiling at her. I leaned down a bit so that we were closer to the same height as her parents snapped a quick picture.

“Thank you!” she squealed, as she walked back over towards her parents. I couldn’t help but smile as the little girl ran away. She reminded me of Elysa in a way. Her innocence, her shyness, even the sound of her squeal after our picture.

“Lads!” Paul shouted as us even though he was only a few feet away, “We have to move along!” I could barely hear anything over what I assumed was a normal roar of noise in the square combined with the high pitched squealing and screaming that our band now brought with us wherever we went.

Louis tapped on my shoulder before speaking into my ear about where I next location would be, but I wasn’t really listening. When we finally got there, I couldn’t help but smile yet again. We were at NBC’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller center. I had been here once before when the lads and I preformed on SNL.

As we walked inside, the screaming subsided. At least these girls had the good intentions not to scream so loudly inside of a building. We ate a quick lunch on the bottom floor before a tour guide led us into an elevator that none of our fans were to use. He took us up a few floors, and let us out at a familiar studio. We were back in 8h, where they filmed Saturday Night Live.

“One Direction!” I heard someone yell from a few feet away. The lads and I all turned our heads to see Tina Fey walking towards us. “I didn’t know you would be back here!”

The lads all said their hellos, as did I. But before I let Tina walk away, I insisted on a picture. “My girlfriend is a huge fan, could I get picture with you for her?” I asked. She laughed her charming laugh as we proceeded to take a picture. This time I felt like the small fangirl shyly talking to their idol, and she wasn’t even _my_ idol.

 


	21. Chapter 20

**Elysa’s POV**

We had traveled down most of the east coast of the country and my leg was feeling significantly better. I was itching to get out of the cast and be able to drive. But I had to remind myself that it might have to wait until I got to California. Either way, I was determined to take Liam out in my car once we were near home.

The tour bus wasn’t really built in a way that condoned sleep. The bunks were small and the boys were noisy. A TV or radio was almost always on, and if I was next to the window at night I would get chilled. Liam went out and bought a couple of extra blankets after I complained about it the first night and he’s been cuddling me even closer since. But I feel bad because I tend to wake up in the middle of the night for no reason.

On our last night in Florida before we were set to fly out to Arizona, where we would take a bus around the Western states, eventually ending up near my hometown in California, Liam and I were cuddling in his bunk on the bus. Our flight was going to happen essentially in the dead of night, and I had no clue as to why. These boys and their management could afford anything, yet they still chose horrible timing for flights. We cuddled there together, waiting for time to pass and maybe even get a bit of sleep before we were sent to the airport.

I squirmed a bit, not able to find a comfortable position. I was sure that Liam was asleep at this point, and tried hard not to wake him up. But it was no use. Regardless of if he was awake before or not, he was now. I knew it when he turned to face me and fluttered his eyelids slowly open.

“Are you ok love?” he whispered to me, trying not to wake anyone around us. I sighed, not knowing exactly how to answer. There was a lot on my mind, and the past few days I had actually avoided talking to Liam about what I was thinking. I was worried that I might get in the way of his performances or his fans.

“It’s ok,” he whispered into my ear, pulling me closer to his side, “I’m right here.” He paused, as if trying to put together his next words. I listened intently, almost worried about what he might say. “You can tell me anything.” There was a silence as my shocked body refused to move. I knew I could tell him anything, but him saying that to me meant that he must have noticed that I had been quiet recently.

“I just…” I couldn’t figure out how to put my words together for Liam. I wanted to pour my heart out to him, but I wasn’t sure what it was I was trying to pour. “I just…” I tried again. It was no use. I started to feel variations in my breathing and noticed that I was holding back from crying, and Liam noticed as well.

“Shh, baby,” he said, stroking my back with compassion, “it’s ok. It’s going to be ok.” I wiped what I feared would soon turn into a tear away from my eye and snuggled in further to Liam’s body.

We laid there together for a while longer, neither of us saying anything or moving anything other than our chests to breathe. I was almost sure that he was asleep by the time I was able to put words together from mind into a coherent sentence, but I said it out loud with no warning anyways.

“Can I write you something?” I whispered quickly, suddenly embarrassed of what I had said.

“You’ve been writing?” He asked me, eyes still closed. I took a deep breath. He knew that I wrote mostly when I was going through difficult times, it was an outlet for me. I would either write stories where I was transported into a better life, or poems where I could truly say what I was thinking.

I sighed in acknowledgement and he continued to rub my back for comfort. “Good, I know it makes you feel better. I would love to read some of it on the plane.” I smiled, ecstatic that he truly wanted to see my writing. I was always afraid to show it to people, the thought that they wouldn’t like it eating up inside of me. But more than that, my writing, my stories and poems, they were a part of me, a part of my soul, and it’s hard to show that to someone.

I moved my head a bit on Liam’s chest, trying to get more comfortable as I was finally able to let my eyelids droop down over my eyes and drift to sleep.

The next thing I remember was waking up for real, this time in first class on a plane to Arizona. Liam was on one side of me and Niall was on the other. I saw my bag near my feet and felt the soft blankets that came from the tour bus bunk around my shoulders. I smiled, removing my head from Liam’s chest and realizing that he was in a much deeper sleep that I had been. I giggled a bit, wondering what he might have been dreaming about.

I turned to Niall, who in contrast to Liam was very much awake, staring out at what seemed to be stars, but were actually city lights bellow us. I tapped his shoulder, causing him to shake a bit out of shock, he must have thought I was very much still asleep.

“Good morning sleeping beauty,” he teased. I blushed a bit and giggled before replying.

“Do you have any paper?” I asked him. It must have seemed to come out of nowhere, but I didn’t usually carry paper in my carryon bags. A pencil: always, but paper? Not really. He nodded, handing me his own pad. I smiled as I had to flip through pages and pages of lyrics that he had been writing in the past weeks to get to a blank page.

I turned away from the blond-haired boy and sat with the lined paper in front of me, and began to write with my favorite pencil.

About an hour later, Liam began to stir, and I instinctively started trying to hide my writing before remembering that I intended to show it to him. His eyes opened and his lips curled into a smile before pressing lightly to mine. After a moment, he took notice of the paper in my hand.

“Can I read it love?” he asked sweetly.

“No,” I replied rather harshly. He was a bit taken back, but I started to explain. “I don’t want to be with you when you read it, and I don’t want to talk about it once you’ve read it, I just want you to read it, ok?” he nodded his head, kissing me sweetly again to show that he agreed.

Goose bumps started popping up on my skin as if it was the first time that I had felt his soft, warm lips on my own. He smiled, responding by rubbing my arms a bit and pulling the blankets further around us, trying to comfort me.

By this point, Niall had drifted to sleep and my mind began to wander. I looked out the window beside me, seeing the city lights that still appeared to resemble stars before turning to Liam who had been holding me silently for the past few minutes.

“Li?” I tested for his attention. He sighed in acknowledgement and I allowed myself to let my thoughts flow freely. “Remember that night on top of the hotel in Ireland?” I asked him. Again, he made a soft noise. “Remember looking up at the stars?” he nodded. “Now, we’re looking down to them, and someone down there might be looking up at us. Do you think we were looking up at anyone that night, Liam?”

He was quiet for a moment, trying to take in what I was saying before nodding his head slowly and whispering a response. “That night, we were looking at a lot of things. I was looking at you in your eyes, but I was also looking at you in the stars, because I know you are as special and as unique as a star.” I giggled and felt the heat rise to my cheeks as I blushed harder than I had in a while.

“I love you Liam,” I said softly, nuzzling myself more comfortably into his body.

“I love you too Elysa,” he responded in my ear before kissing me softly.

And within moments, the plane had landed. We were in Arizona, and I smiled.

“Liam, we’re here,” I whispered, smiling at him. He pressed his lips innocently to mine and I chuckled a bit. “I have an idea of how we can break in the bed in this hotel.”

I don’t know what came over me, but I did know for sure that I wanted to get to this new hotel room and rip Liam’s clothes off of his body. And he seemed to agree with this sentiment as he smiled and kissed me, lips lingering longer than usual.

“What if there are fans?” He whispered, lips just moments from my own. I smiled, not giving him an answer. I didn’t know what to say and it didn’t matter. There were always fans, they were everywhere, and I was trying to get used to them being around wherever we went.

Niall coughed loudly, reminding us that he was sitting right there and there were other people around. I giggled a bit, trying to hide the pinkish color that I’m sure my cheeks were starting to turn to. I quickly grabbed my small navy blue draw string bag and put it around my shoulders, Liam following suit with his own as we filed off of the plane as quickly as possible.

Normally I liked to linger around in the airports. Something about airports seemed so special to me, like it was the gateway between the world on earth and the stars above. Everyone there was going to a different place for a different reason, and even the small things seemed to capture my attention. But not this time.

This time, Liam put my hand in his and we dashed across the terminal as quickly as we could with my crutches holding us back a bit. I led him through crowds that he didn’t quite understand how to maneuver. At one point, while trying to rush through a group of fans, I caught his eyes. There was a hunger deep inside of them and I noticed their normal sparkle had been replaced by a deep lust. I smiled to myself before continuing to hobble-dart through the mass of people.

By the time we made it to the hotel, it was clear what was going to happen. Liam and I couldn’t keep our hands off of each other. The other boys didn’t even have time to ask questions, if they had any. The moment Liam got our keys we raced to the elevator. I smiled up at him, noticing his hardening member in his pants, and I hadn’t even begun to touch him yet.

The elevator doors open and we raced down the hall to our room. Management had once again given us a room with two separate beds, but we instinctively ran towards the same one. I plopped myself down on the plush mattress, throwing the annoying crutches to the side, and Liam followed suit.

He kissed me deeply and without a second thought, our tongues were casually fighting for dominance. I let my hands explore his body. His chest was warm and comforting as always. My hands ventured down a bit lower to the hem of his shirt, tugging at it, and he immediately lifted it up over his head.

My lips ached to be touching his again, but he refused. I looked at him confused, but his eyes held a warmth as they looked into mine. “You are so beautiful Elysa,” he whispered, causing me to blush. His thumb brushed over my heated cheek as his eyes faded from the sweet and warm sparkle back to the dark lust that I had seen earlier. Once again our lips were crashing down onto each other.

Fireworks seemed to go off in my mind, more powerful than any time recently we had kissed. The sparks flew around in my mind as Liam’s hands flew around my body. It was like we both had a hunger for the other one that just could not be totally fulfilled.

Liam lay on top of me as his hands explored their way down to the hem of my own shirt. I allowed him to lift it over my head, but reconnected our lips as quickly as possible. The kiss deepened with every second that it continued and my body was in complete bliss. I felt a warmth spread from my lips around my entire body, landing and lingering around my groin.

“Liam,” I whispered through his lips.

“I know,” he whispered to me. His ability to know what I was thinking was impeccable as he reached into his wallet and pulled out a small silver square package. He put it on the small night table that the hotel had put uniformly beside each bed and we continued. But something in my head told me to be worried.

I disconnected my lips from Liam’s, feeling an aching need to reconnect. But my brain worked harder than my heart on this one. I looked over at the condom that Liam had pulled out and clearly intended to use. But with one look, I knew something was wrong.

“Liam,” I said. He must have caught my worried tone as he moved a few feet over to see what I was looking at. We made eye contact and sighed. The package had been opened at some point while it was in Liam’s wallet, and when I picked it up I noticed it was also expired. “Do you have another one?” he shook his head, clearly mad at himself.

“I’ll buy more tomorrow,” he said with a sigh. He moved across the room, stroking his hair out of stress.

“Sorry, I just…”

“I know,” he cut me off. “We need to be safe. I love you too much to risk anything.” His eyes had gone back to their normal loving and warm sparkle as mine connected to them. “I love you so much,” he whispered to me.

His thumb caressed my cheek as I continued to look into his eyes. Our lips connected once more but this time slowly and with a message of care and love as opposed to the hungry one that we had been engaging in before.

“I love you too Liam,” I whispered into his warm pink lips, “so much.” I paused just to look into his eyes. This boy cared about me so much that he understood that we needed legitimate protection and was willing to put his boyish hormones aside for me. “Thank you,” I added carefully.

After a moment Liam got up and went into the bathroom, probably to take care of the small problem that I had left him with. I opened the door, realizing that we had beaten our bags to the room and assumed that they would be sitting right outside.

“WOAH!” I closed the door suddenly. That had to have been Harry’s voice, and I wasn’t wearing a shirt. This was horrible. “It’s ok Elysa,” he chuckled, “I was gonna see it sooner or later!” but the heat was already rushing to my cheeks as I felt a mixture of pain and embarrassment.

“Liam!” I yelled across the room. I was forced to wait a moment before he walked out of the bathroom and responded. One look at my face and the expression on his own changed completely.

 

“What happened?”

I waited for Liam to walk over to me and sit down beside me. He placed an arm around me and rubbed my own arm in an attempt to sooth me.

“I thought our bags would be outside…and Harry saw me…like this.” I was mortified. I could not believe that had happened.

But Liam only chuckled. “That’s all? Babe, that’s nothing, it’s just Harry!”  This enraged me. I was not a person who was used to be naked, or even partially naked around others. “It’s just like being in a bathing suit!” he told me.

“Liam, I haven’t worn a bathing suit in over a year…” I reminded him harshly. His facial expression changed once again as he realized what I meant.

“Babe, Harry loves you just like the rest of the lads do. Your body is beautiful, and he’s even told us he thinks that. There is no reason to be embarrassed.” He smiled at me and kissed me sweetly on the lips. I was still embarrassed though. “I’ll talk to him in the morning if you want me to,” he offered. I nodded my head and he kissed me again. “Alright, let me get those bags now.”

Once Liam had gotten our bags, I immediately dug through mine for a pair of sweats and a t-shirt. Even the smallest things seemed to bring my insecurities back, or so it seemed. But Liam was sweet and helpful; he cuddled me as we drifted off to sleep and told me exactly what I needed to hear.

 

 

 


	22. Chapter 21

**Liam’s POV**

Ever since we got to the west coast of America, Elysa seemed to have a brighter personality. The cast wasn’t bringing her down as much and we were both learning how to live with it. But I don’t know who had been counting down the days more impatiently, me or her. Finally, the countdown had nearly finished, and after the show in Los Angeles we were taking her to a doctor who would hopefully take her cast off for good.

After we finished the show, said hello to a few fans, and changed into regular clothes, the look on Elysa’s face told me she was just as eager as I was to get to the doctor’s office this time. She had become quite good at using the crutches, but I knew she wanted so badly to be able to only have to rely on purely herself again, and I wanted her to be as happy as she could be.

We walked into the doctor’s office as a big group, but the security guard that I guess they hired anticipating our arrival tonight asked for only Elysa, Paul, and I to go inside. They said it was too crazy to have all of us and there were some really sick people there today. Of course, the lads agreed after hugging Ely and wishing her good luck.

Sitting in the room was horrible. It smelled like sanitation supplies and we could tell that it was completely sterile. The three of us were mostly silent, as it was clear that we were all nervous. Finally, a doctor walked into the room, breaking up our awkward looks at each other.

“You must be Elysa,” the doctor said without looking up from her clip board.

“Hi,” Ely responded timidly. I smiled and put my hand on her knee to try and calm her. I could tell the nerves were starting to get her. Now that we were in California, Elysa should have been able to be driving if it wasn’t for the injury, and she was anxious to get out on the road by herself again.

“I just need you to hop on to this table and I’ll take a look at your leg,” the doctor told her. Paul and I helped lift Elysa up to the table that she pointed to and get situated.

For about five minutes the doctor examined Ely’s leg. We were all getting nervous as she asked if various things hurt her, and the answer was occasionally ‘yes’. But eventually, the doctor looked up and straight at Paul.

“Alright. We can take the cast off today,” we all breathed a sigh of relief and I saw a glow in Elysa’s eyes, “but,” I held my breath again, “we would like for Elysa to participate in some physical therapy for about a week.”

Paul’s eyes were as nervous as mine were. That must have been the moment when I realized how much he truly cared about Elysa as well. It was nice to see that he wanted the best for her when he spoke up. “We’ll be on the road for another two weeks, and then flying to Canada and back around Europe.” He told her. The doctor’s face dropped a bit.

“I understand you are in quite a difficult situation.” She stopped and took a deep breath, as if trying to calculate some equation in her mind that would ultimately give her an answer that we were all going to be happy with. “Well,” she finally spoke after a moment of contemplation, “If you set an appointment with a doctor at least once a week for the next month that should be sufficient. Of course, it would go faster if you did the therapy all at once.”

The three of us exchanged awkward glances for a moment before Paul finally remembered that he was the adult and spoke up. “Would you give us a minute to talk about it in private?” he asked.

“Of course,” The doctor answered. “Just push the nurse button when you’re ready.” And she walked out the door.

The moment the door closed there was an exhaustion that filled the room. Of course we all wanted Ely to get better as quickly as possible, but we also all wanted her to continue on the tour with us and not be stuck in LA for too long. We had three more shows here before heading to Nevada and then to Northern California where Elysa was from, and she wanted so badly to be with us for those shows at least.

“What if,” Paul took a moment after beginning his sentence to make sure he had fully formulated what he was about to suggest. “What if Elysa stayed here for the rest of the LA and Nevada shows, and then flew to meet us near her home?”

There was an awkward silence. We all knew that this was ultimately the best choice that any of us could come up with, but it was still quite a letdown. I didn’t want to leave Elysa alone somewhere, but it was sounding like I couldn’t actually take her with me either. 

I looked over at Elysa slowly as she carefully nodded her head. I took a deep breath. This was going to be difficult for both of us, but I figured this would be the best solution. Paul stood up and hit the nurse’s button as the doctor had instructed us, and within moments she was back.

“So what did we decide?” she asked, as if she was a part of the decision. It was silent as none of us wanted to be the one to answer, to seal in the fate of the next week.

Eventually, Paul broke the silence once more. “Elysa will stay here while we finish up the shows in this area and in Nevada, and then fly up to meet us in San Francisco in about a week.” We all took a deep breath, realizing what this plan would really mean for all of us.

“And does Elysa have a legal guardian in the area for her to stay with?” My throat dropped into my stomach. She didn’t have anyone to stay with other than me, and once we left, she would have nowhere. We hadn’t even thought of this up to this point. I sometimes forgot that she was still a minor and needed a legal guardian.

“No, she doesn’t.” I answered with a deep breath. The doctor looked down at her clipboard for a moment before looking back up at us and responding.

“Ok, well if her insurance covers it we can house her in outpatient care for a few days until her leg is fully recovered.” I looked over at Paul, who shrugged, and Elysa did the same.

“I don’t really know what my insurance is…if I have any…” Elysa told the doctor timidly.

The doctor looked over to me and Paul, “We can figure out the payment issues later then.” She had a sweet smile that came out for the first time in that appointment. “Now, let’s get that cast of, yeah?” Elysa’s face turned to a smile as she proceeded to remove the clunky thing attached to her right leg.

**Elysa’s POV**

After taking the cast off, the doctor had let me go ‘home’ to the hotel with boys for the night. But the next day I was admitted to the hospital in a special hall for outpatient care. The room was small and stark, but comfortable none the less. Although I missed the feeling of Liam’s arms wrapped around me as I lay down and slept, and the bed was much less comfortable than the hotel beds that I had come accustomed to, I managed to get pretty good rest.

Twice a day a doctor or nurse would come into the room and help me up. There was not much pain in my leg when I put weight on it, but they insisted on taking me around in a wheel chair. At first it felt sort of demeaning, but then I just told myself that I was too important to risk it, and I was able to get by with a smile. The physical therapy was easy, and the days were actually flying by quicker than I expected.

The day before my departure, a nurse walked in for a third time that day. It was unexpected, but she quickly explained herself as there to help me gather my things so I could leave the next morning. I told her simply how I didn’t bring much of my belongings with me. Just a few changes of clothes, my phone and a charger, and my computer which I found out after arriving wouldn’t work inside of the hospital. Even still, she helped gather some of my clothes together and laid out what I told her I wanted to wear the next day on the plane to San Francisco.

After she walked out, I felt my phone vibrate at my side. I flicked off the dull TV show that was playing in the background the moment that I saw the message was from Liam.

_Hey babe, how are you feeling? Tomorrow! X_

I smiled. Seeing that he missed me like I missed him felt great, and I melted a bit inside every time that he called me ‘babe’ or ‘love’ or anything really.

_Loads better. I can’t wait to see you._

_I’ve been thinking about you a lot lately. Are you alone, can I give you a call? X_

My heart froze. I knew what was going to happen and I got goose bumps all over my body just from the thought. I had noticed that Liam had been hornier than usual the past few weeks. I suspected it was because he was afraid to take care of things himself when I was around, but I tried to ignore it. I really did want to have more intimate moments with Liam, but something just always seemed to get in the way.

Before I even had a chance to finish sorting out my thoughts of reply to his message, my phone began to ring. My heart fluttered with anxiety and nervousness as I answered.

“Hi Liam,” I said softly.

“Hi Ely,” I heard him say on the other end. I could tell from the sound of his voice that he was somewhat smirking on the other end of the line, which in turn made me smile. I decided to play a bit dumb as we continued.

“So, why did you call? Did something happen?” I asked casually while looking around the room.

“No,” he answered softly. With every word he said I could hear his hormones speeding up and taking over his body. His breath quickened as he continued, “I just wanted to talk to you.”

I smiled in response before remembering that he couldn’t actually see me. “Oh, about what?” I asked him playfully.

“Oh nothing, “he teased. I smiled once again. “Just wanted to know what you were up to. They don’t make you wear those horrible gowns in there, do they?” he asked. I giggled in response, knowing clearly where he was trying to take the conversation but seeing that he was doing so as subtly as possible.

“They don’t really mind what I wear…” I teased softly.

I could hear his breath catch as I said that before he continued to speak. “So what are you wearing?” he said a little bit more shyly than I had anticipated. He had always been so much more confident than me, but either was nervous or was trying to make sure I wasn’t nervous.

“Not what I would be wearing if you were here right now…”

Once again his breath was caught, and I smiled to myself. I guess was I was pretty good with words after all. “I wish I was there then,” he finally responded, in a deep, somewhat raspy and lustful voice.

“Me too,” I responded. I smiled, looking at myself in the mirror. I was wearing an old t-shirt and a pair of shorts, but I hadn’t actually told him that. “What about you?” I asked, mimicking his own question.

He was silent for a moment. I heard his breathing speed up and I realized what he was probably getting to on the other end. “Nothing,” he softly whispered. I couldn’t help but giggle as I heard that but I noticed his breath instantly change. “We don’t have to-“

“No!” I cut him off. I had never done this before, but I was excited to try something new. “I want to,” I smiled as I answered. His breathing returned to normal before speeding up as it had moments before. “I don’t really know what to…”

“Neither do I, but it’s ok baby.” I had a sort of sigh of relief when he said that. The fact that he was as inexperienced in this as I was made me feel a bit better. “I wish we were together right now.” He spoke into the phone.

And although he meant it to be completely seductive, it fully took the mood away from me. My breath caught in my throat a bit differently than I would have expected in this moment, as I began to sniffle up my feelings.

“Are you ok babe?” he asked concerned, once again putting me in front of his desires.

“Yeah I just…” I took a deep and shaky breath before continuing, “I miss you. I’m so alone here.”

“Sh, baby, it’s ok. We’re going to be together again tomorrow. It’s so close.” I grinned into the phone, thankful that he was so willing to put my emotions in front of his own boyish hormones.

“Babe, go take care of yourself in the bathroom, I’ll be fine.” I giggled a bit.

“Are you sure Ely? You know I love you, right?” he asked with a huge sense of concern in his voice.

“I’m sure,” I said, taking a deep breath, “absolutely sure. I love you too.”

 

 


	23. Chapter 22

**Elysa’s POV**

I walked down a terminal that I finally found partially familiar when I landed at SFO. Carrying my small, navy blue, drawstring bag on my back, I slightly limped my way down the long hallway, testing the strength of my leg. It seemed to be feeling fine, so I decided to put a normal amount of weight on it, smiling when I was able to walk normally.

With my leg feeling better, my next mission was to find Liam. My arrival was not a well known event, so I wasn’t expecting to see a lot of paparazzi, or the other boys. It would probably just be Liam and a driver to take us to the hotel. So as I walked past a large group of girls, I didn’t even think twice about it.

“Ely! Elysa!” I heard someone shout from where I had just come from. I instinctively turned around at the sound of my name to see Liam smiling dumbly.

“Liam! Liam!” The girls around him were shouting. But I didn’t even care. It amazed me how attached to Liam I had become in just a few short months as I reflected on the mere week without him that had seemed so horrible.

I took a few steps forward to be intercepted by Liam’s warm arms and muscular chest. I nestled my head into the warm spot that I loved so much as he squeezed me tightly.

“I missed you so much,” I whispered up to him. His head dropped to place a small kiss on the top of mine as he reciprocated the same feelings. “Never leave me again?” I half asked, half demanded. He chuckled a bit before agreeing and freeing me from his embrace.

“Come on, let’s go see the other lads,” he said, taking my hand in his. I smiled and followed his lead as the group of girls slowly subsided. We made our way to the car and sat together in the back seat as the driver began to move.

“Wait!” I shouted suddenly. Liam looked at me confused as I spoke to the driver. “Can we go somewhere else? Not to the hotel?” I looked up at the boy next to me and smiled as I gave the driver instructions to my house.

We arrived at my house and I saw my familiar front door. The driver left and it was just Liam and me alone again.

As we walked in, Liam took my hand in his. His slightly smooth slightly rough skin tickled my own for a moment before they warmed up. I never wanted to let go of those hands ever again.

“I love you Liam,” I said softly after a moment of silence.

“I love you more than you will ever know, Ely,” he responded.

I bit my lip and looked around the house. And in that moment, I knew what I was about to do was right. I knew I loved him, and I knew he loved me. And all my insecurities about my body seemed to slowly start to melt away as I realized they didn’t matter to him. I wanted him, and he wanted me, and I was going to finally give myself to him.

“Wanna go lay down?” I suggested softly. He nodded and I led him back into my room.

We sat down together and he just sort of looked at me, his eyes sparkling as always. And that’s when I knew he knew what was going to happen.

He leaned in and kissed me, softly at first, but soon it grew hungrier. Although more loving than and not quite as intense as things were back in Australia that night, it was even more amazing. Our tongues explored each other’s mouths as our hands explored each other’s bodies. We knew each other so well by now. He knew exactly how to touch me and I him.

Liam rubbed my back softly before slipping his hand beneath my shirt and slowly pulling it upwards. Our lips only disconnected for a short moment to get my shirt off before they reconnected. I felt a small chill, but other than that I was completely comfortable.

I slipped my own hands under Liam’s shirt and felt up and down his chest that I loved so much. He didn’t need another hint and he threw it off, discarding it somewhere on the floor with my shirt.

Before reconnecting our lips, he simply looked at me. I didn’t feel self conscious at all. I felt loved. I felt good. It felt nice to know that he admired me so much like that.

After a moment, he gave me a quick loving kiss on the lips before turning his attention to my newly exposed breasts. He rubbed them and played with them, he kissed them, and even nibbled on them. I giggled at first, but slowly the noises coming out of my mouth became small moans. I bit my lip, embarrassed by the sound I was making.

“No babe, it’s ok. Tell me what you think. Tell me what you like,” he whispered to me.

When I could tell he had felt satisfied, he looked up to me. I nodded my head in response and he started moving lower down my body. He kissed all the way down my abdomen until he reached the top of my pants. Without looking up or losing contact with his lips to my skin, he curled his fingers beneath the waistband and pulled my panties off as well all in one swoop.

He continued kissing around my inner thighs. I knew what was going to happen and I was excited. Secretly, I had always wanted this. I think Liam felt my urgency and he smiled, only prolonging the gift he had wanted for so long to give me.

Liam began with his fingers like he had done before. And although it felt great, I knew there was more he was holding back on, and he knew I was going to let him do it.

Eventually, he lowered his head in to where I craved his touch the most. I was soaking wet and we both knew it. He began to lick up and down my opening. Slowly, too slowly he went. I found myself with my hand through his hair, pushing his face closer to me. I was begging him for more and he knew it.

He swirled his tongue around my small sensitive nub and I just about lost it. He continued to use his tongue to play with it while pumping in and out of me with his fingers, curling them up to hit a magical place inside of me.

Just when I thought I was gone, he stopped and sat up. I reached for his boxers, figuring that he would want me to return the favor.

“No,” he said softly, grabbing my hands and pulling them away. “This is all about you today.”

I couldn’t help but smile and blush as I lay back down. Liam removed his own boxers and reached for his wallet. He came back in with a small plastic package.

“You have a good one this time?” I teased him.

He smiled back at me. “A man only makes that mistake once, Ely,” he chuckled.

He made eye contact with me after noticing my staring and gave me a smirk as he rolled the rubber slowly over his long hard shaft.

“Ready?” he asked looking into my eyes.

I nodded, moving my hands to his biceps to brace myself. I had heard about the pain of the first time, but I had no idea what to really expect.

He saw the look of worry on my face and calmed me by stroking my cheek and moving my hair behind my ears.

“I love you,” he whispered to me and I smiled. I gave him one last nod of approval.

Liam had his left hand next to my head and used his right hand to guide himself to my entrance. I was nervous and scared as I squeezed onto his arm next to my face. He was careful as he pushed his tip inside of me. I bite my lip, trying not to let out a scream of pain as he slowly entered me further. I could feel a tear forming in my eye as he pushed himself nearly all the way in and paused allowing me to adjust.

He saw the distress in my face and leaned down to kiss me. “It’s going to be ok, it’s going to be amazing,” he whispered just above my lips. I nodded my head, trying my best to believe him.

Liam buried his face in my neck, kissing me as he slowly began to move inside of me. And sure enough, the pain slowly turned into pleasure, and my gasps slowly became small moans. I moved my hands to his back, grabbing on to nothing as he went.

He picked up his pace, going faster and faster and bringing more pleasure to me than I ever thought possible. I let out shrieks and moans at his every movement, calling out his name.

I soon felt my stomach tightening, and I knew what that meant.

“Li, I – I’m,”

“I know baby,” he panted, “whenever you want to.”

I closed my eyes, squeezing them tight as I felt my climax hit. He rode it out with me, his hitting at nearly the same time inside of the condom.

When we finished, he rolled over, removing himself from me and kissing my cheek. I felt an emptiness that I never knew existed until that moment.

After we both caught our breaths, I began to giggle.

“What?” he asked curiously.

“I just lost my virginity to Liam Payne. Do you know how many girls are jealous of me right now?” I continued to laugh as I reflected on that to myself. Never in my life did I think this would ever happen.

“Well I just popped your cherry, and there should be boys everywhere jealous of that,” he whispered, bringing my sweaty body in close to his own sweaty body and kissing just behind my ear.

“I love you Liam,” I whispered.

“I love you Elysa,” he whispered back. 


End file.
